The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Picture Of Wendell Wood House On Mountain; Hydraulic/Hillsdale Closing For Roundabout

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Picture Of Wendell Wood House On Mountain Hydraulic/Hillsdale Closing For Roundabout What’s The Most Important Thing Costco Sells Bo Carrington of Seven Development On 6/25 VA School Board Member Alliance On 6/26 Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

of, I mean, essentially roasting this guy. Are they roasting this guy, Judah, for being successful? I think they're roasting him for being excessive and having poor taste. Excessive? Because he's got a big house? Because he built a house to show it off at the top of a mountain. Or did he build a house on top of a mountain because he wanted

the view? I don't think those are mutually exclusive. Fair enough. We'll talk about that topic today on the program. I want to unpack this quality. Let me know when all the feeds are hot if you could. If you want to put the first, lower third on screen about the Wendell Wood house, I'd love to have this conversation today

on the show. I'm just finding it very interesting dynamic. I see Twitter is live. I see YouTube is live. I see my Facebook page is live. Guys, we'll show you I Love Seville is live. We'll show you Wendell Wood's house atop the mountain. He's been working on this for, goodness gracious, close to 20 years. You need to get the group up and running if you could, please. I'd say close to 20 years. I want to unpack the dynamic of roasting Mr. Wood about this large house. I want to ask you this question. Is it a dynamic that's rooted in jealousy? That's a question I'll have for you, J-Dubs. Let me know when LinkedIn is up. I don't see LinkedIn up and running. I want to make sure our friends on LinkedIn, because I hear from

quite a few of the folks on LinkedIn that it's up and running there. And then we can start the show. I'll compare, confirm. I love Seville Facebook here, Jdubs. We'll also chatter on today's program. What was the intersection that you said is closing down? The group is live, which is great. Hydraulic and Hillsdale. That's more your neck of the woods than mine. I don't travel there often. You said it's pretty traffic-y already. It can be. It was especially bad when I tried to drive it yesterday. Why do you head out there that way?

What's that? Why do you head that way? Well, if I'm... And let us know when LinkedIn is live. Hmm. Finish your thought, if you could there are very few places to cut across to 29

one of the flaws in our area and so often times when I'm heading to some place like Stonefield or the restaurants around that area, I'll head over to Hydraulic and cut across there. Okay. We'll talk about it.

Once he's got LinkedIn live, guys, we'll rock and roll here on the Monday edition of the I Love CMO Show. Tuesday's show, Bo Carrington is in the house, and Wednesday's program we have the folks from the New School Board Association that's gaining some traction. They're eager to come on the show. If you want to start it without LinkedIn we may have to. We're about seven minutes on the on-air here, Judah, so you make the executive call. Is it connecting? I'm reconnecting it now to see if it'll come up. I may have to reauthorize it, so I'll get us started.

Okay. Quiet on the set. Good Monday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. It's good to be with you on a first day of the week. Hope the weekend treated you well. Try to bring you topics that are local to Charlottesville and Central Virginia and just have long-form conversation about them. A couple of programming notes on

Tuesday tomorrow. Bo Carrington is in the house. Mr. Carrington, a developer, tomorrow, Bo Carrington is in the house. Mr. Carrington, a developer, businessman, the principal of Seven Development. He is a partner in a property management firm. I think he's got a lot to offer from a real estate and a business standpoint and offering perspective on those topics. We'll just pick his brain in a friendly conversational setting tomorrow. We also have the Virginia School Board Member Alliance on Wednesday's show. They are gaining quick traction,

and we're being told the Virginia School Board Member Alliance is getting potentially some additional new membership, new public school systems joining their organization as school systems continue to shop for different counsel, if you may. I want to have that conversation on Wednesday. I'm very excited for that show. We have a fantastic photo. I think it's the best photo I have seen of Wendell Woods' significantly large property on the mountaintop next to Carter's Mountain. That photo is circulating on Reddit right now, and the feedback, the comments from the Redditors under this photo has been, you know, on both sides of the aisle. You know, if I'm being neutral here,

there are some folks that are saying, wow, this house is massive. There's other folks saying that, oh my gosh, why does this guy have a house like this on a mountain built to look down on us? They talk about the taste. Others talk about the view. I want to try to unpack on today's show the dynamic of,

I guess just throwing shade on a guy that's had significant success. And Mr. Wendell Wood, his company, United Land Company, I'd say probably the largest landowner in the area still, the Wood family. We'll talk about that today. I think Judah and I are going to have very different opinions on this on today's show. If LinkedIn is not able to connect, we can just go without it for this show. That way we can conversate on this topic because I think your opinion is very different than mine. We'll weave Judah Wickauer in here on

a two-shot and talk about quite a bit. Your weekend, what is the highlight of what you did this weekend due to Wicower? The highlight of what I did was not burn up. It was crazy out. But Liza and I had a lot of fun and we stayed cool and got in a little bit of got a little little bit of splashing in over at the creek. Which creek do you guys go to? I don't know if it has a name. It's the creek next to Meadow Creek Parkway. Maybe it's Meadow Creek. Nice. Very nice. Liza, of course, is dog. You want to show the photo of Wendell Woods' house that's circulating on Reddit? Yeah, we can put that up.

Put that on screen. Let the viewers and listeners know. We'll give credit to where credit's due. Who's the Redditor that captured this photo? He goes by the name TB8. TB8 captured this photo. This is the best picture I've seen of Wendell Woods' house

on the mountaintop next to Carter's Mountain. Are those all service vehicles? I was wondering the same. Could be his fleet of vehicles. Is the house even done? I don't think the house is finished. There was talk last week or a couple of weeks ago that the house was completed it clearly in this picture does not look completed to me I would say those are all service vehicles that are working on the house you clearly see the dumpster the red dumpster on the front of the house regardless this is a massive property probably the best view in central Virginia is this house this is the big

house you see when looking at Carter's Mountain next to Carter's Mountain. Wendell Wood, I'll give you a little bit of bio on him from his Sevillepedia page. Wendell Wood is the president and chairman of United Land Corporation. He's been a land developer in Alamaro County since the early 1960s and has sold tracts of land for the development of Barracks Road Shopping Center, Fashion Square Mall, Hollymead Town Center, Walmart, the U.S. Army National Guard Intelligence Center, among other projects. Mr. Wood purchased his first land in the early 1960s. In 2000, Wendell Wood ranked 65th at Virginia Business Magazines, the Virginia 100, which ranks the 100 wealthiest individuals in the Commonwealth. At the time, in 2000, he was estimated to have a net worth

of approximately $160 million. Mr. Wood sold the land that is going to be where Rivana Futures is. Alamaro County made that deal to keep the defense sector a $1.3 billion impact on the region in northern Alamaro County, right on the Greene County line. Mr. Wood made that deal with Alamaro County. He was also the landowner over there on High Street by the Rivanna River. City Council purchased land for Mr. Wood. Some would say it's maybe not the most developable land, although tomorrow's guest, Mr. Bo Carrington, had a plan to develop the site.

And the city, after purchasing it from Wendell Wood, is now converting it into a park. That deal was fodder for this talk show for a couple of weeks. If you put the house back on there, one thing we can say, it's large. Second thing we can say is maybe... See one thing about it. Maybe the biggest house in the area.

This is technically Albemarle County. Second thing we can say, maybe the best view in the area. You're atop a mountain. If you're allowed up there. You're atop... No, from his vantage point. I doubt anyone he's going to allow anyone up there. He wants his family up there. But what I really want to talk about today

is the conversation that's happening on Reddit. Significant, how would you characterize the behavior toward this project? Hate? Bitterness? Hate? Bitterness? Anger? Shade? Disdain?

Jealousy? I think disdain is a good word. I think a lot of people are unimpressed by this. I think a lot of people are unimpressed by Wendell Wood. One person makes an interesting comment about oh, so he wasn't born on third base. He was born owning the stadium.

But is that the case? I don't know. You're the one that's got the Sevillepedia open. The Sevillepedia says he purchased his first piece of property in the early 1960s. I mean, is that an assumption? Is he a self-made man? I mean, he got, what did he, how did he? That's my expectation. That's my understanding. Well, then maybe some people here have it wrong. Somebody here is saying that his family has owned lots of land along Route 29 since before the Civil War.

I'd love to get confirmation on that from somebody. Philip Dow, welcome to the program. Find me someone, confirmation on that, and I will stand absolutely corrected on this show. Okay. I mean, I'm not saying that they're right and anyone else is wrong. I mean, that's just an anonymous poster on an anonymous message board. That's true. Right? I would love for some...

It's not in the Sevillepedia. It's not? They don't say anything about his family? Not a single mention in the Sevillepedia about this. They talk about where he attended college, Mars Hill College. They talk about his first purchase in the 1960s. They talk about what he has done from a development standpoint and the projects his land has turned into development.

His son allowed fireworks to be shot off from that mountaintop a couple of years back. Ray Cadell helped organize that. Randy O'Neill, welcome to the program. I'm trying to understand if you want to put that lower third on screen if you don't have it, so folks can understand what we're talking about. I want to understand the concept of throwing, I guess Judah will go with the word disdain, for this type of project. He's built a house atop a mountain to enjoy a view for privacy's sake. He's got the land for spatial, for palatial development. Is it big? Yes. But what's wrong with that?

You're right. I don't know that there's anything wrong with it. And obviously we're just checking out what people have to say about him. But you said you kind of understood the take from Reddit about the disdain for this project. I mean, one guy talks about being right up... The property is right next to his. Dylan's rule, welcome to the show on Twitter.

This guy says, he overlooks, abuts my property. I'm hoping they don't encourage more building on mountaintops. I think some people just, you know, find the clear-cutting of the top of a mountain in Virginia a bit distasteful, I think. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouths. I'll play devil's advocate. Don't all owners have property rights?

And he owns the land. I don't think anybody's saying that he should be stopped. They're just saying that disdain doesn't mean that they think he doesn't have a right to do what he's doing. It just means they think it's tacky or it's excessive or it's just... Would it be tackier to build this house or a house of similar size in a neighborhood or in city limits or right smack dab in the urban ring? I remember when a house was torn down in Belmont. I believe it was two adjacent lots were torn down in Belmont. And the new owner or the builder combined,

assembled the two lots and built a massive structure. Still exists today. The neighbors this lot similar feeling of disdain bitterness anger maybe it's jealousy and they said how can this be allowed to be built they utilize the word tacky distasteful and describing the project if you're doing it atop a mountain completely away from the populace and traffic isn't your behavior or what you're doing the opposite of trying to stand out and seek attention i mean didn't you say that you can see it when you look up at carter mountain on a clear day but it's not like you can see it when you look and when you drive by it in a neighborhood. It's not obstructing people's view outside their window.

I just want to understand, and it's not unique to Charlottesville. It's not unique to Charlottesville. I want to understand the feeling or the attitude of throwing shade or tearing somebody down because of their success. That's what I'm trying to understand here. Deep throat. Deep throat on Twitter. I will say that out here in Montana, it is very much frowned upon to build all the way up on a ridge or peak. He says there's a very large and garish house.

Garish. Garish house. Thank you. Like this a couple miles away from me. Has been for sale for 10 years. Prices come down from 10 million to show me a bid. Very hard to maintain. When Wendell Wood passes, it's going to be a chore to move it. That said, Seville Left consists of some of the most envious people

I've ever come across and it is kind of gross. I'm wondering if that's what we're seeing. It's a little of both. I won't deny that some of this sounds a little, I mean, somebody talks about him being preoccupied with letting everyone else know how rich he is. So, yeah, I think there is. But is that what he's doing?

Who knows? It looks like to me a guy is building a house on a mountain for nice views and privacy. How big is his family? Couldn't tell you that. Couldn't tell you that. I would guess that some people are looking at this thing and saying, is this a monument to his own greatness? It reminds me of the story of when Mr. Jeffrey Woodruff, the front of the program, built the squash facility in the area.

And folks are like, why are you building this squash facility instead of doing something else? And when I read that story, I'm like, he can do what he wants with the hard-earned money that he's accumulated through his efforts. And if he chooses to do this, then props to him. You know, like, I don't, I'm just trying to get a feel for why someone would or a group of people or a large group of people would try to tear

down somebody for building their dream house. Like Deep Throat said, I think it's generally frowned upon to chop the top off a mountain and build on it. I think a lot of people see it as tacky. And then you look at this thing and it's gigantic. And a lot of people are clearly involved in the speculation surrounding what's this for?

Does this guy need a mansion up there? Does he need a house that big? I don't care one way or the other. But I can see how... If you could build a house that big on top of this mountain, would you do it? Hell no. You would not?

No. Why? Because I think it's excessive too. I don't care that he's doing it, but clear-cutting the top of the mountain is kind of like a screw-you-look-at-me move. Respect your opinion. Conversation starter, certainly.

I would counter by saying if it was such a deplorable move, why does the county disallow it, not disallow it? Could they? I mean, yeah, technically maybe they could, but really? The county disallows a Crackle Barrel sign. A Cracker Barrel sign? Crackle Barrel, an Olive Garden sign. One of the main reasons we don't have a Crackle Barrel or an Olive Garden is because the county would not allow their signage. And they said, you need to change your signage if you want to come to Albemarle County.

And Crackle Barrel and Olive Garden said, you've got to be kidding me. We're not going to do that. And it's crushing it in Waynesboro. It's not in Albemarle County. That's fair. I think that you know I think

maybe they would have liked to have stopped him maybe they couldn't find a good enough reason to maybe it's just one of those laws of good taste that yeah you don't wear white after You don't wear white before Labor Day or Memorial Day?

What's the first one of those? Is it Labor Day or Memorial Day? Oh, I don't know. You don't wear white before Memorial Day? I think it's after Labor Day. Yeah, before Memorial Day and after Labor Day, you don't wear white. Is that one of those? Is it just between don't wear white. Is that one of those?

Is it just between those two? Yeah. It doesn't matter. Is that one of those gauche, that's what you're saying? It's one of those things? Yeah. It's like maybe the county can't stop him, but they and everyone else are like, seriously? You're going to build that up there so that everybody can see it?

Again. I mean, the feed, this threat is just like... I'm not saying that we should stop him from doing what he wants. He wants to spend his money on a monstrous mansion at the top of a mountain. That's his prerogative. But that doesn't mean that everybody has to turn a blind eye or say, sure, that's great. And let me ask you this question. How about the guy, Jason Howard, we'll get to your comment here in a matter of moments. How about the guy who

flew over Wendell's house and took pictures of it? What's the question? You don't think that's a bit invasive uh if he if he had a daughter that was sunbathing on the back patio maybe but uh no i i don't think uh it's invasive no problem with somebody flying over your house and taking photos of it? If they got photos of my house and some HOA workers patching the back deck, no, I wouldn't care. Jason Howard watching the program, he says this. At least the property will pay taxes to Albemarle and help fund services for the county. Where are the pictures and outrage when UVA buys, builds, and in the process removes the land and improvements from the tax rules? Great comment. Yeah. Is

Wendell Wood the largest taxpayer in Albemarle County? Not named the University of Virginia. Is Wendell Wood the largest taxpayer in Albemarle County? That's a great question for Sean Tubbs. Deep throat, you might have that answer. We should do a show on the top taxpayers in Albemarle in the city of Charlottesville. Philip Dow in Scottsville,

I hate to see land taken away from the environment. Respect that comment as well, Philip. We have to check their... We could figure that out. I mean, how much are they getting taken off in, I don't know, what, rebates, tax, sinks, right? How much tax exposure are they sheltering? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, basically.

Still owns a boatload of land. Yeah, but if you're not paying taxes on stuff, like we just mentioned with UVA. Yeah, but UVA is a non-profit. He's not running a non-profit. That's comparing apples to oranges there. Sure, UVA is a non-profit. He's not running a non-profit. That's comparing apples to oranges there. I'm sure UVA is a non-profit. UVA is legitimately a legally created non-profit. There's two. There's the for-profit arm and the non-profit arm.

And the non-profit arm is legally a non-profit by the letter of the law. And that's why they don't have to pay taxes on their holdings. The non-profit. United Land Company is a for-profit business. So, you know, he is paying taxes. I'd be curious to see who the largest taxpayers are

in Albemarle County, in the city of Charlottesville. I bet we could figure that out. Anyway, we wanted to lead with this. We found this photo somewhat insightful or somewhat provocative, if you may. If you put it back on screen, the feedback on this on the Reddit social media forum

has been, would you characterize, mainly nastiness to Mr. Wood? Predominantly nasty, would you say? Yeah, it's more of a discussion. Some of the comments are definitely not charitable, but I don't see anybody really being horrendous about him. You're much more tolerant than I am. George Gilmer says the cars own much of the land along the North Fork of the Rivanna to the Southwest Mountain which is towards Keswick. Appreciate that

Georgia Gilmer. Very much enjoy your historical perspective that you share on the program. Thank you for sharing. All right Let's put the next lower third on. You wanted to talk about the Hillsdale intersection. This one comes in via Facebook direct message. This comment, I'll get to it in a matter of moments. Set the stage, if you could, about the topic you want to cover. We've had some interesting construction going on recently from the

odd formation at 64 at the top of Pantops which apparently works. I've, I've heard it works well. It still seems odd to me. I don't really understand the thinking with the crossing lanes. What are you talking about? The diamond interchange? Yeah.

I thought you wanted to talk about the Hillsdale. This is leading. What's that? This is, I'm leading into it. Okay. And now we've got this construction at, at. The diamond interchange on Pantops works flawlessly well. I just don't understand why it need, you need, why do you need to cross the traffic? Oh, you're saying the execution of it? Yeah. It doesn't make any sense to me. Since the diamond interchange on Pantops, I live up there for four more days, five more days. Since that diamond interchange at the top of Pantops

by Martha Jefferson Hospital has been put in. Now, it took drivers and users an extended period of time to figure it out. But now that folks have experience utilizing this interchange, the Diamond Interchange at the top of Pantops by Martha Jefferson, it is a flawless, traffic-efficient piece of artwork. It works extremely well at Zion's Crossroads. It took people a long time to figure it out at Zion's Crossroads. Took people a long time to figure it out at Zion's Crossroads. Took people a long time to figure it out on Pantops. But both of them, you would say, are working very efficiently and are much better executions

than what they were prior to not having them. Maybe someone can explain to me what the difference is between a diamond interchange and just having a light that stops traffic going one direction until the other side has gone and then lets the other side go. Okay. Do you want to get to the bottom of that? I'm just curious because it seems like a whole lot of something for essentially what you could do with a stoplight. But I don't know. Now they're working on the hydraulic and Hillsdale intersection, which I guess they had a problem with. Maybe I just didn't hit that area at the right time. But while it may have backed up a little bit, I never really saw an issue with the running of it. However,

when I hit that area yesterday, it was backed up all the way to 64. We should change the lower third if you still have the window with lower third. Backed up all the way to 250. I've seen three traffic projects engineered

extremely well in my 24 years of being here. These are the three. The Rio Road bypass, Rio and Route 29 bypass. That's specialty guitars plus kind of by Fashion Square Mall. They have an underpass and an overpass. That was a nightmare and now it's running much smoother. That traffic engineering worked great. The Zion's Crossroads one has worked fantastically well,

and the Pantops one has worked fantastically well. I would say those three projects have been engineering success stories. To be determined, the engineering success story of the new Belmont Bridge. Yeah. To be determined on that.

They've been working on the Belmont Bridge for as long as I've been in the Charlottesville area, which, again, is 24 years. You're saying this Hillsdale project is nightmarish. And I'm not really saying it's not. I'm saying right now it's a nightmare. Obviously, when the construction is going on, there are going to be issues. I don't know that I feel the roundabout was necessary.

But, again, time will tell whether or not it accomplishes what they want it to accomplish. And, you know, one of the things we talk about here on the show is vision. And sometimes somebody has a vision that not everybody else can fully appreciate until the vision is made concrete. And so while I struggle with what they're doing, I think that's great. We talk about needing vision in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. And needing someone who is not just going to come along and impose their their ideas for their wendell wood house on top of a mountain for two years or well i have no problem one would imagine that house is

going to be there longer than two or four years uh but the point i was i would imagine that house is going to be in the wood family for generations to come yeah I doubt anybody else will buy it if they try to sell it. But yeah, the point being that I think it's nice when somebody has a vision for the area that are willing to push for and invest in. And when it all works out, I think it's great for the area.

Bill McChesney says they need a diamond interchange at exit 118. The mayor of McIntyre, Bill McChesney, watching the program right now. Deep throat highlights that with the Pantop 64 diverging diamond, they don't fully exploit it as they hold people with a red coming off 64 for what appears to be no reason. Isn't the whole idea that you can't let this flow? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Some of it is a little odd. I agree. It's strange sometimes when you're stopped at a light and you're like, wait a minute, why is there a problem with me moving here? But he said it was to allow things to flow. Bill McChesney, they are halfway there eliminating the one cloverleaf ramp to go eastbound.

They need to fix the ability for 29 northbound vehicles to go west on I-64. You wanted to, this could be a segue into something that you're extremely passionate about, as he spends most of his time outside of work with this fantastic dog named Liza, the walkability or lack thereof of this area. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think it goes hand in hand with a lot of things we've been talking about lately. The missing middle, which is not, I think, is not just about housing. It's also, it also involves what? Jobs. Jobs, mixed-use neighborhoods. So you've got neighborhoods with, like we talked about last week, you've got neighborhoods like Belmont that have houses and shops and restaurants.

And I think they liven up an area. They provide something. We talk about food deserts. And I think a lot of that is because we don't have a lot of these neighborhood... Imagine a Market Street market in your neighborhood. For a lot of people, that would be a godsend, but I, we just don't really have the, I don't know if we just don't have that type of mixture. Part of the reason we don't have that type of mixture is the survival of those businesses or the ability to survive. If a grocery store like Market Street Market is positioned in neighborhood,

and a great example of this is Reed's. Reed's is a neighborhood grocery store. It's hanging on by a thread. They needed to do a GoFundMe, the community, to stock its shelves. The owners of Reed's are saying, the community, to stock its shelves. The owners of Reed's are saying the neighborhood doesn't support us like it once used to. Right.

And maybe Reed's is in the wrong place now. Maybe it needs to change or go somewhere else. Or maybe it just won't work anymore. But that doesn't mean that no neighborhood market like that will succeed anywhere. We have this almost fairytale vision for neighborhood amenities like grocery stores, coffee shops, bars, where people access them by walking to them. And it's just for the neighborhood.

Well, that may be a fairy tale for this area. That's my point. That type of fairy tale, for it to be reality, you need massive density. Like you see in Manhattan, or you see in Brooklyn, or you see in D.C., or you see in Georgetown, or you see in Manhattan or you see in Brooklyn or you see in D.C. or you see in Georgetown or you see Capitol Hill. Show me where in Charlottesville this works. I can think of a couple, but tell me where in Charlottesville this works. You're asking me to show you where something has already been done like this?

A neighborhood restaurant, a neighborhood bar, a neighborhood coffee shop, a neighborhood grocery that has withstood the test of time, financially healthy. I just highlighted the Reeds one. We've seen what's happening over there. Both you and I, I try not to speak for you, want nothing but the best for Reeds. Yeah. I hope they crush it what about belmont doesn't it have almost all of that we we can go to the belmont and you can say that oh well some like lataza is closed down or uh lataza's change owners it's now bell the spot that the grocery store across the way hanging on on by a thread. Recently sold. Sold because of the value of the Airbnb.

Mas Tapas, the longest standing one. Mas Tapas has the value of corn capsul. What about the local? The local has the value of Adam Frazier. The local, Mas Tapas is significantly more long standing than the local. The local has the value of Adam Frazier. The local, Mastop is significantly more longstanding than the local. Okay. The local owned by Adam Frazier, who lives on graves in Belmont. I watched him when I lived on little graves, fresh out of college.

I watched Adam build the local from scratch. Like, built it, rehab it, take it it to market open a restaurant there he owns the Mockingbird across the way mm-hmm we've seen that become a lot of different things the local has a huge edge so does Mockingbird in that the landlord is also a partner in the restaurant. I mean, that's just good business practice, right? Very rare. Sure it is. I mean, I could probably count on two hands,

the restaurant owners that also own the real estate. Peter Castiglione owns Maya, the building. Adam owns the local in Mockingbird and the buildings. Yeah. Wilson Ritchie was doing a hell of a job with this before he passed. Cafe Frank, he owns the building. He owns the building where the Bevedero is in and Rockfish Brewery, he owned. Yeah.

But it's not the norm. Take the Jefferson Park Avenue area. A friend of the program, Terry Hinderman, owns Fry Spring Station and the shops of Maury Avenue. Fry Spring Station, the pizza place, has seen a few different owners. You had the Steve Perry group out of Lynchburg that initially owned it and ran it. You had PK come in and buy it as Fry Springs Pizza. Now it's going to be a new pizza place with out-of-market owners.

Dirty Nelly's has traded hands a couple times. I've heard Dirty Nelly's is potentially for sale now because that corner is owned by the late Phil Delaney estate and the building needs significant work. And the expectation is the current owner, Jordan Brunk, is going to do that work to the building. He's like, why am I going to do all this rehabilitation work to this dirty Nellie's building when I don't own the real estate? I'm just improving your product. Yeah.

I would push back on this. And I'm curious of what viewers and listeners think. I would push back on a neighborhood bar or a neighborhood coffee shop or a neighborhood grocery having significant success in Charlottesville. I would love the idea. Yeah, I mean, maybe that's just Charlottesville, but it's worked other places and not just places of extreme density like New York or Chicago. I just don't think you have the density in the neighborhoods to support it. Fair enough. And another question that I have is if you don't have the parking, will the community support it? There's numerous examples of businesses

not having the parking locally. Look at Hardywood. Hardywood on West Main Street. It's now what, Devil's Backbone? It was Skipping Rock. That taproom on West Main is centrally located. Centrally located in a... What?

The dead center of Charlottesville. But is it centrally located to the type of people that would walk there and be regulars? There's density all over it. There's apartments directly above it. There's locals and student housing all over it. It's by 10th and Page. It's by Fifeville. It's by the UVA Hospital. It's by grounds at the University of Virginia. There's

density all over it. But that can't stay open. You wouldn't say the devil's backbone taproom on West Main Street is crushing it right now. It's always empty. It was always empty at Hardywood. Hardywood made great beer. Devil's Backbone made great beer. Skipping Rock had very bad misfortune of opening during the start of COVID. I don't know. I guess my point is this. Will the up zone, the new zoning ordinance, which allows these kind of commercial properties in residential neighborhoods actually have success?

That's a good question. It's a great question. Like, would the new zoning ordinance that allows that Lewis Mountain rancher that traded for $835,000 where you could build a handful of units on it? Will that actually become a reality? It's on paper a good idea, but maybe it's just a fairy tale. It could be. Instead of reality. Mr. McChesney, there used to be three reeds in town, the current one on West Main Street, the one that burned down at 5th and East Main Streets. I think there was one, also a reeds bill, was there not

in Nelson County? Is there still a reeds in Nelson, Bill? I believe there is. I'd love to walk to stuff. Yeah. So would I. I'd love for it to be more walkable. I'd love to be walkability right here. Got a good chunk of this building. I'd love to see walking and biking here. Only going to add value to the building.

Yeah. All right. Last topic before we get out of here. What do you think is the most, this is a national story, but there's a location here in Charlottesville. The CEO of Costco on record saying, this is the most important item our store sells. What do you think is the most important item, according to the CEO of Costco, that the store sells?

I don't shop there, but would it be their cheaper Tisserie Chickens? That's a good guess. So is the $1.50 hot dog. I was just going to ask if they have a $1.50 hot dog. They do have a $1.50 hot dog. It's the membership card. This number is startling. There's 130 million members of Costco and they sell a $60.6 billion in revenue last year.

Wow. On top of that, members are loyal with 90% of cardholders opting to renew their membership, according to Costco's most recent annual report. How challenging would it be for any small retailer, mom-and-pop, locally- small retailer, mom and pop, locally owned retailer, to compete with a business, a behemoth like Costco, that has 130 million members paying $60 to $120 just to enter the door.

Yeah. But they do it because they get pricing that they can find nowhere else. Yeah. Can we make an argument that right now is the most difficult time in American history to launch a brick-and-mortar storefront? If it's not, it's pretty darn close, I would say. You have the Internet crushing walk-in storefront traffic. Yeah.

You have Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club crushing or taking significant market share. Mm-hmm. Any other time more difficult right now for someone on Main Street or West Main or Preston or the downtown mall to open a storefront? No doubt. 130 million people paying for this card every year. Yeah. And now that I think about it, conversation with my better half, we have the $60 card.

The $120 card gives you 2% cash back on every purchase. Yeah. You make that back up and two purchases alone and then everything else is gravy. We'll close with that topic. Two purchases? $60 is all you have to

make up? 2% cash back? I mean, two purchases is light. We go in there and we spend $400 or $500 a purchase. I mean, two purchases. You are correct to push back on that. I mean, what do you need?

To make up the $60? You need $3,000 in purchases. Right. $3,000 in purchase when you're doing 400, let's do a conservative, 400 a week. Yeah. That's seven weeks, seven and a half weeks. The more people you're buying for, the easier that is to hit.

After seven and a half weeks, the $120 card pays for itself and then some. We just bought a washer and dryer. We bought a washer and dryer. Here's another thing that I encountered yesterday. We bought a washer and dryer at Lowe's, a GE washer and dryer at Lowe's yesterday. Yeah. We priced the washer and dryer at Lowe's on Route 29 during their Memorial Day sale. And it was, the sales clerk said, this was the best deal that we are going to offer at our Route 29 sale on any of our appliances this Memorial Day sale. It's going to be like $1,500, $1,600 for this washer and dryer set that we have. Do you know washer and dryers now connect to the Internet? They're Wi-Fi-compatible washer and dryers.

It's like this is the best deal that you could find at our location. And where we're moving, we weren't ready to buy them yet because the contractors were still doing work on the house that we're moving into. Yesterday, my wife said, why don't we go to the Lowe's on Zion's Crossroads? It's just a better experience for us. We went to the Lowe's on Zion's Crossroads. They were not having the Memorial Day sale. The one on Route 29 when we visited was having the Memorial Day sale. The clerk said it was the best deal you could get here. The Zion's Crossroads Lowe's did not have a Memorial Day sale, and it was still cheaper than the Lowe's on Route 29.

I straight up asked the clerk at Zion's Crossroads. I said, is the pricing by each store different? How are these more affordable than the Route 29 store? And he said, without question, straight face and serious, the pricing here is different than Route 29. I have heard very good things about the Zion Crossroads lows and not so good things about the 29. He straight up said, he straight up said the Zion's Crossroads lows is priced more affordably than the Route 29 lows. We save near least. I wonder if it's the same type of issue with gas where you find higher, sometimes only slightly, but usually higher gas

prices near a highway exit. We saved close to 12% on this purchase. From the sale price. At Zion's Crossroads versus Route 29. And the Route 29 had their best sale of the year and Zion's Crossroads did not. I want people to think about that. That's based on the demographics of Zion's Crossroads compared to Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the people that shop there and the people that shop at Zion's Crossroads. Another interesting tidbit that you should follow closely. I don't know if you guys saw this as well.

Walmart is about to roll out surge pricing. Oh. Where pricing on their produce and their groceries will not have a sticker on it, but instead will have a barcode that you scan. It's in the news. And the pricing at Walmart with its groceries will change in real time based on demand, inventory levels, based on what's selling and what's not selling, based on macro impacts like wars in the Middle East, wars in Russia, wars in Ukraine, based on oil, based on transportation costs, based on labor, surge pricing, real-time price changing at Walmart Grocery. when it comes to retail-oriented stores is it's not so much a way to gouge people, like, oh, everybody's buying, you know, whatever it is, Santa hats leading into Christmas, and so Santa hats are now going to be $20 a hat.

It's more a way of, uh, it's more a way of auto coding, um, discounts. Uh, for instance, say something is, you know, you're, you, you're almost at the end of a box of, of special chocolates or something. And, in an office can just sit up there and say, okay, we just want to get rid of these. We want to be done with them. We want to get them off the floor. So let's drop the price and get them sold. There's not a positive thing that's going to come out of surge pricing for the consumer. I would happen to agree. There's not a single positive thing.

And there's nothing that I hate more about being in a retail establishment and having no idea what the price of something is. That does not entice me to buy more. If surge pricing starts hitting Walmart and groceries, it's just a matter of time until it starts trickling down the consumer ladder. And if big box stores are utilizing real-time surge pricing based on inventory levels, gasoline costs, transportation overhead, fluctuating

labor, geopolitical turmoil, it's a matter of time where the mom and pop, the locally owned businesses, the regionally owned businesses have to do the exact same thing. We've all seen a menu at a locally owned business where the price has changed with a piece of tape over the price. And the price has gone up. And the reason the price has gone up is cost of goods, labor, something has escalated. That's the proverbial surge pricing at the local level. Surge pricing at Walmart with grocery is a terrifying proposition for the consumer. It optimizes the bottom line for Walmart. It hurts the wallet of the consumer. Possibly, yeah. I think restaurants for a long time have done it fairly well with the whole market price pricing on certain items in that they reserve it for one or two items.

It's usually used for items that do have some variability in cost, and it's used sparingly. You're right, I can't see it working well for a place like Walmart. You don't see it working well for a place? It's going to crush it for Walmart. It's not going to work well for the consumer who shops at Walmart. Yeah, that's what I meant. Okay, Walmart's going to hugely crush on this. It's going to improve their bottom line tremendously.

Jason Howard says, you could have bought the washer and dryer at Costco and got 2% back and a long warranty. I got a little feedback on that. I asked the Lowe's guy about the five-year warranty that they were trying to sell me for $150. This guy, I straight up asked this guy, do you get commission on the washer and dryer you're selling me? He said, no. First question I asked him. As soon as he told me

that he got no commission on the washer and dryer he was selling me, I knew this guy was going to shoot me straight because he was working hourly and there was no gravy for him selling me this washer and dryer. Then I said to him, this $150 five-year warranty that you're trying to sell to me, a Lowe's warranty that covers everything. He says, I said to him, is it worth it? He goes, these general electric washer and dryers are going to last you 10 years. They're not going to break down in five years. That's just another profit center for us. You don't need the $150 five-year warranty. Everything under the sun. And then I had a Lowe's card. I utilized the Lowe's

card with it. You get two options. You get 5% off or you get financing for 12 months at zero rate to the 5% off. So you got this washer and dryer, buying it at Zion's Crossroads versus Route 29. I saved basically 11% off the shelf. Zion's Crossroads versus Route 29. Then put it on the Lowe's card where I'm just going to pay it today after buying it yesterday and got another 5% off. Kevin Higgins watching the program. Search pricing is headed in a direction that will someday price items on an item based on what it knows about the consumer and spending patterns and needs. This is scary. 100%, Kevin Higgins. That's 100% right.

That's 100% right. I'll tell you another scary thing that, not scary, but artificial. So essentially you and I both walk into Walmart and every item is priced differently for you than it is for me. 100%. 100%. That's horrendous. 100%. And it's going to track you by your spending habits.

Either when you walk in the door, the cameras will see you or it will be tied to the cookies on your phone in some capacity with software or technology they have in the store. Oh, Judah's on the aisle here. He's got a phone in his pocket. Let me scan his phone in some capacity. Oh, the cameras recognize you, the visual, the facial recognition. Judah does this kind of purchasing. Because Judah does this kind of purchasing, we're going to raise these 4% or 5%. We know he's going to buy them.

100%. Another crazy thing that I experienced here. We're moving across the county in Albemarle. We had a fireplace insert. This fireplace insert was this extremely nice wood fireplace insert stove. It was a stove that was electrical that you could plug into the outlet. So you got this insert, this gorgeous insert, that was in the fireplace, kept the fireplace from being an actual functioning fireplace.

It was a stove inside a fireplace that plugged into the wall electrical. You put wood in there. The electrical capacity of this stove kept things burning. I would think you could use it without the electricity as well. I mean, I would imagine. I don't know much about this. Anyway, the point is this. We didn't want this insert. And the contractors that are doing work on our house, I mentioned to one of them, Manuel, I said, you could keep this insert if you want. No charge to you. He said, what can you tell me about this?

My wife told me about this. So we took a photo of the insert. Horizontal picture with my iPhone. I went to the Amazon app where there's an upload function where it could, right here on the search bar, there's a camera where you can upload. I uploaded the stove

and it called up the stove and the value of what it was today. And I said to him, this stove is $1,400 brand new. And once I showed him that on my phone, he goes, I'll take it. Yeah, absolutely, I'll take it. I'll move it out, I'll take it.

It's heavy as all get out. It took four guys to move. I wasn't going to move it. My wife and I didn't move it. We didn't want it. The value to us was next to nothing. It was going to cost us money to move it. If we couldn't sell it,

we'd sell it on Facebook Marketplace. What, are we going to have some strangers come to the house and buy it in the basement? We gave it to a guy we trust. He wins. We strengthen the relationship with him. Maybe he keeps it. Maybe he sells it himself.

The point is this. I took a picture of it with my phone, and I scanned it into an app, and I got all the history of it. I'll close with this. Surge pricing, 130 million members at Costco, pricing like Kevin Higgins, a smart man, just described, where you walk in and the pricing is going to change based on who you are.

How does the small guy compete with that? They don't. Sandra McDaniel, washers now have weight limits. My parents bought their new washer at Lowe's, and after three times having someone come to fix it, they went to a small appliance store in Scottsdale and bought a Speed Queen. Horrible service on Lowe's washers. I hope that's not the case for us.

I appreciate that comment, though. Jason Howard, could see with surge pricing, if it's a tourist town, the prices go up in season down after it's just locals. 100% Jason Howard, that's going to in season down after it's just locals. 100%, Jason Howard, that's going to happen. In fact, that happens now. You go to Outer Banks, anywhere, tourist area, the prices are higher. But that's 100% right. You've also got special times like summer. and actually I found it strange that winter is a more expensive time. You mentioned the Outer Banks.

Summer and winter are more expensive, and then you've got a kind of like short in-between that usually falls. That's dead. End of summer, somewhere end of summer, fall. Prices are like half, sometimes more than half off. I just saw the calendar notification. You've got a vacation coming in October. Yeah. It was going to be end of... Thank you for giving me the heads up. That's a lot of notice. I appreciate that from you. It was going to be end of September, I believe, this way with these dates.

You got the whole family coming? My sisters, well, not only, they usually go out to the Outer Banks, but I believe with these dates, they will be able to come back to Virginia with us. And my dad's birthday is in October. So they'll get to join us for the surprise party that my mom announced to the entire family on our family chat. How's that a surprise party? That's a good question. Was it mistakenly

announced? I think that's what my sisters asked. No, I don't think it was supposed to be a surprise surprise. How was your dad turning? The big 75? Oh, man. Or the is your dad turning? The big 7'5"? Oh, man. Or the big 8'0"? Let's see. I believe he'll be 80.

The big 80, that's a big one. That's a milestone. Yeah. Happy early birthday to big Jim Wickhauer. All right, the Monday edition of the program. Tuesday, the Jerry and Jerry Show. Jerry Ratcliffe, Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, 1015. Bo Carrington, if you follow business, real estate, and development, this guy knows it inside and out.

Including a deal he almost did on High Street with Wendell Wood. And on Wednesday's show, Judah, Wednesday's show, we have the... Yeah, SB... I just hate acronyms who is it oh let's see shelly sbma yes shelly norton okay and she's going to introduce the world to the sbma the sbma is the virginia school board member alliance and they're trying to compete with the virginia school board the Virginia School Board Member Alliance. And they're trying to compete with the Virginia School Board Association. It's a busy week for the I Love Steve-O Show.

Thank you for joining us. For Judah Wickauer, I'm Jerry Miller. So long. Thank you. Thank you.