The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA AD Carla Williams Fires Coach Ron Sanchez; Hoos Fall In ACC Tourney; Sanchez Fired Hrs Later

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: UVA AD Carla Williams Fires Coach Ron Sanchez Hoos Fall In ACC Tourney; Sanchez Fired Hrs Later Hilton & Marriott Hotels Have Toured Dewberry Shell Daniel Halpert CoCo’s Adventure Factory Interview CoCo’s Adventure Factory, Seminole Sq, 02/2026 Indoor Family Adventure & Entertainment Park Future For Office, Retail & Residential Real Estate? 619 Belmont Ave: $960K Ask, 3BR, 2BA, 1600 SQF Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Dr. Daniel Halpert, Owner of CoCo's Adventure Factory, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! 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.

Good Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seaville Show. It's great to connect with you guys in our building in downtown Charlottesville on a network where localized content is the priority. We are in Charlottesville, in Albany County, and in central Virginia in a news desert. And we have, through a lot of hard work, through some risk taking, and through some entrepreneurial spirit. We are looking to fill that desert and we have built a path to water guys over the last 10 years or so on the Isle of Seville network

by prioritizing local content, by positively talking about the businesses, the locally owned businesses in this community that are making a positive impact in the greater Charlottesville area. Today's show embodies that statement. On the program today, Dr. Daniel Halpert, the owner of Coco's Adventure Factory,

you will see him on set in about 15 minutes. We're gonna spend a good chunk of this show chatting with the man that made his living as a doctor, in about 15 minutes. We're gonna spend a good chunk of this show chatting with a man that made his living as a doctor, as a man who offers a lot of guidance and attention to people's bodies, their spines, and their quality of life. And he's a father of nine-year-old twin daughters, a married guy, a Culpeper County resident,

and he has said, look, I see an opportunity for creating a business in the Charlottesville area, a business that is tied to indoor family adventure and entertainment. And he's going to put a lot of skin in the game, a lot of money on the line in the Seminole Square shopping center at the old Big Lots location. And very near in the very near future and in less than a year and I know he really is eyeing that clock because he's got a lot of skin in the game here and he needs to get to a grand opening, Coco's Adventure Factory is going to proudly serve the

Charlottesville, Alamo County, and Central Virginia region. We'll talk about that with Daniel in about T minus 12 minutes on the program. For all of Daniel's fans that are watching on his Facebook page, and for the viewers and listeners that have questions about Coco's, you can put your questions and thoughts in the feed, in the comment section on any platform you're watching upon,

and I will relay them live on air to the entrepreneur and visionary himself. I will give some props to some of his followers that are watching, including the fabulous Caroline Johnson and Susan Livesay Murfield. Already give them some props. Culpepper County is all over the show right now in our IP heat map.

A lot we're gonna cover on the program, guys. We'll talk Ron Sanchez getting fired by Carla Williams, the athletic director at the University of Virginia. Coach Sanchez in UVA lost yesterday to Georgia Tech in the ACC basketball tournament in Charlotte. Coach Sanchez was fired a couple of hours after the final whistle blew. Now, we all realize that follow college basketball

and UVA men's basketball in particular, that this has been a challenging season. We all expected Ron Sanchez to not be retained for next year as there's an active coaching search going on. I have this question for you, the viewer and listener, however. Was the firing of Ron Sanchez a mere couple hours after he loses to Georgia Tech, while he's basically still in the arena in the locker room in Charlotte, North Carolina, was that firing, was that timing disrespectful to the interim head coach who was thrown into a position that

frankly speaking was a position that was that was needing a miracle to get out of. Tony Bennett retiring right before the start of the season. This was a position that no one wanted to be in and no one has had experience being in an interim head coach with Amir a couple weeks before the season started. I'm gonna ask you the viewer and listener that question, was the firing of Ron Sanchez disrespectful to a man who put so much on the line for Virginia Sports? We're going to talk on today's program ladies and gentlemen, the Hilton and Marriott hotel brands are currently kicking the tires and touring the Dewberry Hotel Shell on the downtown mall.

If you're watching this program for the first time, and I see many in Culpepper County watching the program, there's a shell on the downtown mall, an engineering and structural shell, a building that was not finished. The visionary behind the building is John Dewberry. He grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia. He played quarterback for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Now he's a businessman and real estate developer out of Atlanta, Georgia. John Dewberry purchased this shell from Halsley Miner, the initial developer of the building. Halsley Miner was the founder of CNET. He filed for bankruptcy, and as part of that bankruptcy

process, he had to sell this shell of a building at auction. The individual who purchased the shell of the building was John Dewberry out of Atlanta, the developer and businessman. Dewberry has literally done nothing with the shell since owning it it and it's smack dab in the middle of the Charlottesville downtown mall. Right now the Marriott brand and the Hilton brand are considering purchasing this shell

from the Atlanta businessman John Dewberry for a potential project of their own. I want to unpack that story today. I also want to unpack on today's program an interesting real estate listing that hit the market. 619 Belmont Avenue, 619 Belmont Avenue, a Nest Realty listing has an asking price of $960,000, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and 1,600 square feet. You heard me correctly, $960,000 asking price for a 1,600 square foot home in downtown Charlottesville. I'm gonna give you a convincing argument why I think this Ness Realty listing

is well priced at $960,000. Here's a hint, three lots included in this deal. Judah Wickower, the man behind the camera, Judah Wickower, the director and producer, will give some props to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. 60 plus years in business on East High Street and online at CharlottesvilleSanitarySupply.com. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply,

John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion is a three generation strong family business. We also want to give some props to Charlottesville Business Brokers. If you need a business sold in the Charlottesville area, there's one firm you call and it's Charlottesville Business Brokers. You can find them online at CharlottesvilleBusinessBrokers.com. Deals being brokered left and right, including two this month at Charlottesville Business Brokers. Judah Wickhour, I'm gonna weave you in on a two shot. Ron Sanchez fired by Carla Williams, the athletic director.

We expected this to happen. I know you're not a diehard basketball fan yourself. What we did not expect to happen was the embattled interim head coach to be fired a mere couple hours after Georgia Tech beats UVA in the ACC tournament. I personally, Judah, found this disrespectful and a slap in the face to coach Sanchez who's given so much to the UVA brand and the men's basketball program. He was Tony

Bennett's lieutenant for most of his professional career. He's come back to the University of Virginia for a second stint after being the head coach at North Carolina Charlotte for a handful of years. Yesterday he was made to be the scapegoat and he was thrown onto the sword by the athletic director. And it's unfortunate for Coach Sanchez. I expected Sanchez to not be retained. There's ways that you go about it, however.

And firing the guy a couple hours after the season ends puts unneeded attention on a classy individual. And people are gonna make this argument, hey, he was making almost $1.6 million a year to be the interim basketball coach at UVA. I'm gonna put it in perspective for you. If this guy does not get another head coaching job because of what happened here in Charlottesville, that $1.6 million was not enough money because he was put in an unattainable position here,

taking over for Tony Bennett, who basically walks on water and takes a few loaves of bread and a couple of fishes and feeds the thousands at the John Paul Jones Arena. And that's what Tony Bennett did. So I want to close this statement, and if you wanna offer any perspective, jump in. I wanna close this segment by saying, I feel I empathize for Coach Sanchez, a great man, a son who is in high school locally here in Almarra County,

Coach Sanchez has. I find the timing curious at best, distasteful is probably a better description of what the athletic director did here. No doubt. They could have waited until he at least arrived to Charlottesville, got back to his family, had a night to sleep on it and done it today. They didn't have to do it immediately after the game was over. Right.

And the look is not great. No, definitely not. And this guy has worked hard. I mean, he was given very little runway to get this all going. And whatever your personal feelings about him, I think he deserves a lot of credit for sticking in there and doing what he could. Well said, Judah Wickhauer. Now the coaching search begins. The spring transfer portal opens on March 24th. I would hope a coach is hired quickly because I would expect a number of the active Virginia men's basketball players

to jump into the portal ladies and gentlemen and right now it's about saving as much as the raw of the roster as possible while adding more talent to the roster to improve this program We have TV and radio watching right now. Do you think any of the students would? I don't know how to put this, hold a certain amount of loyalty to Sanchez and perhaps decide to piece out with this? I think unfortunately, unfortunately, the loyalty in today's college athletics

is more to the money. is tied to name, image, and likeness, and folks, players, chasing a bag of money. I think they're more interested in chasing money than they are to staying loyal to a school and a coach and a program, and that's unfortunate. It's terribly unfortunate. One other item out of the notebook, and then we'll get Dr. Daniel Halpert on set as we have a boatload of folks watching us here including print, radio and

television. One shot me and update the lower third with the Hilton and Marriott brands looking at the Dewberry Hotel. Interesting bit of news that's circulating around news desk here locally including the Charlottesville Daily Progress. The editor at the Daily Progress, Reynolds Hutchins, has said on the record that both the Marriott and Hilton brands have toured the Dewberry Hotel, the Dewberry Skeleton Hotel in the downtown mall.

I am perplexed by this because we already know that downtown Charlottesville has a boatload of hotels I am perplexed by this because we already know that downtown Charlottesville has a boatload of hotels and Big Apple developer Jeff Levine, who lives in North Garden, the developer who turned the Blue Moon Diner into an upscale apartment complex built around the institutional diner that we love to patronize Blue Moon. We have the Omni, Jeff Levine's bringing a hotel next to the Omni. We have the the

former Quirk, which is now called the Doyle. We have a hotel on the corner right across from the Lewis and Mountain statue, Lewis and Clark statue, and I understand that if you have a hotel in the downtown mall you could command top dollars, but goodness gracious I did not expect a Hilton and a Marriott to look at it. We'll follow these developments very closely. Jay Dobs, if you welcome Daniel to the set here, we'll get him on show in a matter of moments. But doubting the eyes and crossing the T's here, Hilton and Marriott, should they pursue a position on the downtown mall, you're looking at an eight block area that over the last 10 or 15 years has had a number of hotels come to market

and a number of high dollar options. Maybe that's the world we live in here in Charlottesville as a tourist destination. And remember Travis Wilburn, his outfit, Stay Charlottesville's now managing the South Street Inn next to the South Street brewery. Judah Wickhar, if you can go to the studio camera and then a two shot and we'll welcome Dr. Daniel Halpert

to the I Love Seville show. You have a boatload of eyeballs on the show right now and I know it's not for me and Judah, it's for you right here and what you got cooking with Coco's. Before we get into the nitty gritty and the playbook of success at Coco's Adventure Factory, why don't we introduce you to the viewing public? Daniel, let us know a little bit about yourself.

Oh, thank you for having me here. Absolutely. I'm a doctor in Culpepper. I've been there over a decade now. And I'm a father of twins also. My kids are nine years old. And I was taking my kids to different parks, like rock climbing, trampolines,

and I just had the idea of why doesn't someone just bring them all together into one. So that's what I'm trying to do. Make it affordable and the parks that I would bring my children to you would pay to get in and it would only give you two hours or so of play time which isn't enough for kids. So I'm trying to counter that model. One fee that will hopefully be very affordable, so it will be accessible and the kids can stay all day, play as long as they want. I'm so pumped for this.

My wife and I often struggle, especially in the winter time for activities for our kids that are removed from screens. I vehemently as a parent am opposed to our sons being on an iPad or an iPhone or doom Scrolling on YouTube or tick tock or Instagram We're constantly looking for stuff to do before we get into that and really unpack this story Give us the who what when where and why of Coco's adventure factory The who what when where and why how he came up with the name or just everything?

All of it. The whole flip book here. Really, just going around and bringing my kids to different places. If you think Charlotte's the last thing for children to do, you have to say Culpepper. So I want to keep my kids active. Like you said, I want to keep them off of screen time. Our kids get maybe an hour a day on the weekends and that's it. If you look at some studies, I don't want to bore you, but there are adverse

effects to prolonged screen time. Well documented in literature. So I don't want that and the screen will be my biggest competitor, believe it or not. So this type of business should offer a very positive experience for children, gets them off the couch, keep some active, keep them social, helps them negotiate risk, although very safe, but helps them negotiate risk, keeps them physical as I mentioned, seems like a very good idea and I think it's highly needed in this area. Seminole Square Shopping Center, the former big lots, right in the urban ring,

right in the heart of central Virginia, Why'd you pick this Seminole Square shopping center, which has seen better days. I think you will revitalize Seminole Square shopping center along with friends of the program, Lauren, Colleen and Chris at Smash Pickleball. We've been talking for years on this program, how we thought commercial real estate how retail real estate how vacant office space should be repositioned as Omni-experiential offerings and I think what Siebel smash your neighbor the pickleball facility and what you're doing at Coco's embodies Experiential offerings here. Why Seminole Square? Were you initially turned off by Seminole Square?

What's the potential you see with this location? Okay, potential is unbelievable, especially working with Chris. With Smash, I spoke to him. He seems like a great guy. That's Chris Crater, guys, the CEO of ACAC. Yeah, I think our models are going to complement each other. And our goal is to make the Seminole Square the entertainment capital of Charlottesville. I think we can do it. Bounce Playing Create is there already. And the landlord and the team of the landlord have been phenomenal, very kind, generous,

welcoming and helpful people. I had a good feeling with them. I wasn't always treated with the same respect from other landlords I've met, but I feeling with them. I wasn't always treated with the same respect from other landlords I've met. But I connected with them. And they're giving me an opportunity. And I think that entire shopping mall is going to change very soon. I 1,000% agree with you.

Was the – I see your vision as a young parent. Like, I see it as clear as day. And I think you're going to crush this dude. Oh, thank you. Was the presentation or the pitch to landlords challenging to convey? Walk me through that process. Because a lot of folks don't realize this here.

This is not just a partnership with Daniel and the landlord. But this is the landlord partnering with Daniel. This is like a marriage here. He's entered into a ten‑year lease with options and Daniel has a good chunk of the shopping center here, 30,000‑plus square feet here. So walk us through that, pitching that vision. Right. It's a commitment for me, without a doubt. And it's a high risk for me. But it's a high risk for them also. If I'm not successful, they lose. And who am I? I'm just a doctor from Culpepper, for God's sake. These places usually go to the big lots and the Marshalls, Walmarts, whatever, these big boxes. And people don't really want entertainment

centers, because the thinking is that they don't bring customers to other businesses and at the same time they hug up the parking spaces. But the data that's come out recently shows that's not the case. The customers do tend to spread out throughout the shopping mall and I had to convince the landlord of that. And I'm here now so I think I did a good, so I think I did a good job. I think you did a great job. John Blair watching the program in Stanton,

he says, I cannot compliment Dr. Halpert enough on his efforts to bring more opportunities for fun to our area's children. I 1,000% concur with John Blair. This comment is all over the feed right now as parents are thanking you for bringing this idea. Give us the playbook of what we can expect inside the facility. All right.

So it's going to be like a little Disney world, but affordable and local. I want kids to come in and be immersed into a separate reality from whatever they're going through. So I don't care what's happening on the outside. I don't care if they're being bullied or this or that. They come in, they can forget about life, just like I do on my farm. I have a farm also. When I cross the fence on my farm, life stays on the outside. I don't want that for the children. They can just come and have wholesome, clean fun. Trampolines, bumper cars, drop towers, ninja courses, ropes courses, zip lines, an arcade.

The parents will have a place, like a parents' lounge where they can kind of escape from the chaos but at the same time have full view of their children, party rooms, and putting a lot of time and money into the design. So I don't want to just have a big box and start putting attractions in there and leaving it at that. I really want it to be an immersive experience for people that come in. James Watson watching the program, he's got boys of his own that he's constantly keeping engaged. And he says thank you, Daniel, for bringing this to the area with a plan to make it affordable. We've been talking about the demand for this type of space for ten years easily. Also, the unused shopping center space and having life pumped back into it is absolutely

fantastic. James, I 1,000% agree with you here. Walk us through the execution. How does a doctor build an indoor adventure park. Give us that. Quite a process. Let me thank everybody for their support. I'm not sure how much that means. At this stage, since there's a lot of risk and uncertainty, nobody can predict the future. It's something that's really appreciated. How does it happen? I started with my kids, taking them to different places. I had the idea to bring everything together into one location. One thing led to the other. I learned about IAPO, which is a trade show. And I went to trade shows and I went to courses. And I met consultants and experts and people that

have been experienced in this field for decades. And they're all helping for me to put this idea together. I started doing research kind of similar to what I used to do in medicine. So hopefully it translates. But I looked at all the adventure parks around the country, and I looked at the number, their demographics and the number of the catchment area, so the number of customers they can potentially have. And I compared it to Charlottesville and I did an analysis of the competitors here. And I just think there's going to be a high demand.

I think it's well worth the risk at this point. David Hyman watching the program. He's in Keene, New York. He says, I am so impressed with you, Daniel. You're an absolute legend. He leaves that comment right now on social media and Facebook. We have six states watching Daniel Halpert right now on the I Love Siebel Show talking about Coco's Adventure Factory.

Risk. You are taking a risk here. Walk us through the risk profile. We don't have to get into the nitty gritty of the lease or anything. You let us know that this is millions of dollars for build out here. Give us the emotions that go with this. Some people start businesses, Daniel, like food trucks. And some people start businesses like consulting services or they start

businesses like coffee shops and in the build out or the launch or the seed money for those businesses maybe 20, 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars. But boy Daniel, it's going millions of dollars deep here. It's here. Millions of dollars deep here, Daniel. I'm counting on the data. The data is the data. It's objective and I try to remain objective. So I don't let my emotions get to me. When I was in training to become a doctor, I used to run codes.

Everybody has to go through it and you learn to control your emotions. So I try to keep stable. I try to think logically about things. I know there are going to be bumps in the road. I don't let it get the best of me. And I just keep at it. And really, if you look at these parks, they're really opening up everywhere. They're popping up left and right. And there's a reason for that. So I think there's I'm confident there's a very slim chance that I'll fail. But if I do, I'll accept it. You know, I committed to this. I committed to the landlord.

So whatever happens, you know, I'm gonna stick to what I said I'll stick to. I'll do whatever I need to do to make it work. I respect that, I respect that. So for the entrepreneurs that are watching the program, the current ones and the ones to be, advice for them and managing the, I don't wanna to call it trauma,

I've been self-employed for 18 years. You, this guy is, I'd call you a serial entrepreneur now. Real estate investor, he's got a medical practice, he's trying to vertically integrate his real estate business from what you told me by having a small construction team retrofitting the holdings in his portfolio. I think that's fair. And now this one here, it seems to me you've got

pretty much four businesses that are going on right here and in some ways or another. And I wouldn't even say that the four business are perfect complements to each other in a lot of ways either here. So this guy is the definition of a serial entrepreneur. You're giving counsel or advice here with a lot of people watching to the current entrepreneurs or the soon to be entrepreneurs of managing the stuff between the ears, the head space, the emotions that go with it.

What's some of the counsel that you would offer? Control your emotions, do your homework, make sure the numbers work. The numbers are numbers. That's what it really comes down to. Overestimate your expenses and your cost and underestimate your revenue to give yourself some cushion. That's what I've always done and it's worked for me. Make the numbers work and then everybody has to just understand the risk that they're willing

to assume. Tom Powell's watching the program. He's the founder of the Toy Lift. Around the Christmas season at Fashion Square Mall, this guy goes up in the sky in a bucket truck, no matter the weather, and he does it for a period of time to raise toys for kids and families that don't have money in toys at Christmas time.

Great guy here. He says our area has needed a safe place for our children to play and learn to interact with each other for years. Thank you for your willingness to take this chance and to make this happen. He's giving you some props right now on the feet. You got more mothers than I can count watching the program right now. Walk us through the parent piece as it applies to Cocos. If we go to Cocos, you know, some of my favorite aspects of being a parent is doing things with my kids. To be very frank, some of my favorite aspects of being a parent is not doing things with my kids. And having my kids doing some things on their own. Walk me through the parent side of Cocos. So I understand that and I'm building that into the

facility. So there are two mezzanine levels in this property and one mezzanine level as I mentioned will be the parents lounge. So when they want to be with their children and watch their children play that's fantastic but maybe after an hour or two and the kids are staying and soon having fun maybe they get old. So they can go upstairs and hopefully have a nice little social environment upon themselves. Maybe meet other parents there. Maybe decide to come back the next week. There should be nice comfortable couches, massage chairs, coffee, tea, television so they can watch sports. At the same time, everything will be visible. They can have a bird's eye view of the entire park. So they can have a straight sight vision for

their children. At the same time, being away from their kids. I love it. I absolutely love everything that you're doing here. Walk us through access. How's access for the families, for the kids? Do we have price points? Do we have memberships? Do we have passes? You should be yes to all of the above. And I have to decide the price based on how much everything is costing me. But that's something that is important to me. So I don't want to charge an outrageous amount. I want people to feel like they got their money's worth, they got a good value, and they decide to come back again. And just one more thing I

want to put out there. We'll also have a cafe on top of everything. So if you come and the kids get hungry, they can eat, they don't have to leave, and then they can go right back to playing. I, you know, as someone who enjoys, you know, a good craft beer, I encourage the beer and wine piece. I was intrigued when we announced on Monday or Tuesday of this week about Cocos, I think it was Monday,

I was intrigued that some of the feedback was not in favor of beer and wine. Some of the feedback was very much in favor of beer and wine here. Let's just have an open-ended discussion as it applies to food and beverage, beer and wine at Cocos. I can completely understand that.

Of course, alcohol, jumping on trampolines, children, family environment, but typically it's not an issue. So anecdotally a lot of people are worried about that, but I've spoken to many park owners, non-issue. Typically people have a mindset when they're going somewhere to drink. If you're going to a bar or sports game, it's going to be different than the mindset of going to a family entertainment center, an indoor adventure park with your kids, what other family members are there, the children are there. Maybe just one drink, just to relax, hang out, but it doesn't tend to get out of control. If it did, it wouldn't be worth the risk for me.

I wouldn't do it. And if there are issues, then I'll stop doing it. Is the, go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm not even sure we're going to go down that road yet. We'll take it one step at a time, of course. Totally understand, totally understand. Is the goal with Cocos, first, how about this question?

Why the Charlottesville-Almore area, why not Culpepper? Why not closer to your home? Comes back to that data. Culpepper's too small of a town to support it. I love Culpepper, and of course it would be great not to travel back and forth, but it's too small of a town to support it in my opinion from what I've researched. Is the goal with Cocos to scale the brand? I don't want to put the cart before the horse here but you're a visionary guy here.

Is that the goal, multiple locations? I think that's probably the goal with every business owner. Of course, what is the aim for the stars, reach the moon or something like that. But you're right, of course, one step. Right now I just want to survive, honestly. One step at a time. Friend of the program watching the program, Elliot Harding, one of the best defense attorneys guys in central Virginia, Elliot Harding, he says, I am so juiced for this, Daniel. Can I get an early bird lifetime membership right now? I have a 3 and 1 half year old and a 2 year old.

You better expect me to be there a lot. He also says, I'm very much in favor of there being an adult section with TVs and a lounge where kids cannot come into the adult section. Is that kind of what you're envisioning? Yes, but I don't want, hopefully, the etiquette will be to have the parents have their kids kind of, hopefully, the kids won't want to be the etiquette will be to have the parents, you know, have their kids kind of, hopefully the kids won't want to be, why would the kids want

to be there, there's going to be so much to do there. But I don't want to make strict rules at this point. Kids have enough rules of course. I guess we'll take it step by step. If it gets out of control, it'll have to enforce something like that. But it's certainly an area where the parents can go just to kind of step away from the chaos that's going on.

Gosh, questions are coming in and comments are coming in faster than I can keep up with. Cocos is already proving to be a smash hit right here, guys. This question is a very good one from Crozet. Can he walk us through the development process and the project with dealing with Albemarle County and some of the partners he's chosen to do the work inside the Big Lots location?

It's a great question. Yes, good question. I don't want to bad mouth any government entity, but I'm not in Albemarle County and there's a reason why. I'm in Charlottesville, which is different. The process I'm working with, as I mentioned earlier, I work with people that have decades in the industry. So I want to clarify that.

That's clarity for me here. This is technically the city of Charlottesville. Yes, and that makes a big difference for businesses businesses from my experience, but just from my experience. Okay. Can you explain why? So this is your 100% certain. This is the city of Charlottesville here. Yes. Okay. Okay. I'm dealing with Charlottesville Okay, explain why for us? You don't have to hold back here well Because you're probably not gonna open one in Amaro County if there's one in the

city of Charlottesville. Right. So you're not going to be throwing it. Well, they weren't very responsive. They don't work. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to say anything bad about anything. From my experience, it just, I'm sorry.

Okay. Okay. So city of Charlottesville was more conducive to doing business. Yeah, without a doubt. I don't want to badmouth anything. Yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect. So with city of Charlottesville, how does this work here?

Is it perm? You first should go through the permitting. Of course. Give us the roadmap. Okay, well first I have to find the manufacturers. I'm literally sourcing manufacturers from all over the world. IAPA, which is our trade show, this is where Disney comes. I mean, these entertainment centers are going up everywhere.

So the manufacturers are everywhere. So China, Italy, Sweden, different parts of Europe and America, and I'm sourcing attractions from all over the world. So once I have the attractions designed by the manufacturer, it goes to my designer, and my designer is a company called US Design Lab in Florida. All they do is design FECs. FECs? Family entertainment centers. They'll make it look pretty. Once they make it look pretty, they'll send it to my local architect here who will make it legal. Once he makes it legal, I have to make sure the

landlord approves and then once the landlord approves, it goes to the city for approval. And then once the city approves, then it's rock and roll time time Then we start building it out. What's the timeline for build out? I Would say everything will probably take about six months to build out You know, you never know it's got to be delivered from overseas things As I mentioned things are coming from Italy for some reason Italy has just rock and rolled with like carnival rides and traction rides One part of Italy is really big and manufacturing these products rock and rolled with like carnival rides and traction rides. One part of Italy is really big in manufacturing these products. So it has to, they make it, everything is custom made and it's got to be delivered of course.

So any, snafu is going to happen. And I would say six months to be safe once everything is approved. So the launch or the grand opening go time, what are we anticipating? I would say at the latest March 1st, but I'm hoping say 10 or 11 months from today, hopefully like January, I would say early 2026. But there are so many moving parts involved and so many people that need to check boxes. It's hard to really nail that down. Tina Wyatt Breedon watching the program right now.

Travis Hackworth is watching in Danville, Virginia. Thank you for watching the program. Viewers and listeners, if you have questions, put it in the feed. I'll relay them live on air. This is a hell of a question right here. Would you consider partnering with a local brewery or winery and opening a small version of a tap room or some kind of partnership with the local brewery or winery? Great question right there. Well, I appreciate the confidence. I would say wait until to see if I'm successful or not, which I may not be, and you may not want to partner with me.

This guy is super humble, but I'm telling you right now, I have so much confidence in this concept, folks. Dave Varell is watching in the Outer Banks right now. Dave Varell, this is an idea that you would absolutely love as a serial entrepreneur yourself. How about this concept here? With, with, with Coco's being an option for kids and, and, and an option that's not tied to screens. Put in perspective some of the research you've done, because I try to, I try to really put it in perspective on the show

of the potential risk or the damage or the pain or the hurt that can come with young children in screens for extended periods of time. This is why I most love the idea, because I could be next to our oldest son who's in first grade, he turns seven years old this month, and his favorite candy of all time is Skittles. We limit, because he's a maniac

here, the sugar intake. Right. I can be as close to him as I am to you, what are we about five or six feet apart? Right. And if he's on YouTube, doom scrolling, I can be, son, I have a bag of Skittles. You can eat them before dinner. You can eat them before you eat your vegetables. You can have as many Skittles as you want. Shaking the bag next to him. And dude, he doesn't even hear me. He is like so locked in on YouTube, he doesn't even hear me. It's the 2025 version of drugs with children. That's right.

That's 100% right. I have a study. I didn't bring it in here. Can I grab that study? Yeah, absolutely. Please do. Please do. He's going to the green room.

He's got the study here. You're going to hear this from a doctor, folks. You're not just hearing it from me. You're hearing it from a doctor here. OK, so this is studied in a journal called Sirius. And this is a recent study from 2023. So excessive screen time results in worse executive function, academic performance,

reduces amount of quality of interactions between children and their caregivers, adversely impacts language development, has detrimental effects on social and emotional growth, increases the likelihood of obesity, sleep disorders, mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. I can go on and on about it. So that's been well documented in the literature. Can I just add one more thing? Please, please.

You're rotating lower thirds on screen, Jay Dubs. Go ahead, Daniel. Okay, so I know there's some concern about safety with the trampoline parks. But... Randy O'Neill brought that up. He's watching the program now. He was one of the guys who brought it up. Yeah, so I actually have another study.

This is from the journal Pediatrics, just published in January of 2024. So the danger is I don't want to undermine it but I think it's a little bit more overemphasized than it needs to be. It's not really accurate. If you have a safety standard compliant park, which my park will be, I'm going to have inspectors that are state certified, third party state inspectors come to make sure that I meet all ASTM standards, we go above, meet or go above that. In parks that are safety standard compliant, injuries are uncommon and the rates continue to decline. This study looked at trampoline park injuries

and compared it to things like tennis, something called netball in Australia, which is kind of like basketball, and Australian football, which is soccer, and the rates of injury are significantly less than all these activities So even though you may hear about trampling injuries left and right really it's coming from Either a home trampolines or parks that are cutting corners, which I'm definitely not going to do And my park should be safer than typical activities that are

Participate that kids participate in every day. That's a great question that's come from Richmond. Can he speak to the insurance process? We see in the news and headlines that insurance is getting expensive and it's getting hard to obtain. Can he shed some light on how this works with his business? It's a great question. Yes, that's an excellent question.

So it's very expensive. And the other thing is the insurance is going to come by and send their safety person because they're in business with me, right? If I get sued, they're getting sued. So they also help me set up my safety protocols. Yeah, insurance is really expensive. Should I put a number out there? If you'd like to.

Okay. Probably like $150, $160,000 a year. Unbelievable. Yeah, so. The insurance for this, guys, is $12K plus a month. Yeah. That's just mind-boggling to me. Right, right, right.

Look at the investment this man is doing here. Right. We're talking $13,000 a month in insurance coverage alone, folks. That's right. What was this question about the insu... It was just how do you get it? Who offers it? Oh, that's a good question.

Right. So the companies are few and far between. What was this question about the insurance? How do you get it? That's a good question. The companies are few and far between. So I met these brokers at the IAPA meeting, which is again the trade show. And they won't just give it to anybody. So I have to make sure, they won't give it to me if I'm going to be my own manager.

Simply because I don't have experience with it. So I have to have a manager that has at least two years of experience with trampolines and other types of attractions helping me out. Otherwise I won't be able to get insured and then of course I won't be able to open the park. But I am working on that and I'm already in talks

with people that have extensive experience managing these parks. This is just absolutely a great idea. I'm seeing all over the feed people are giving you props here. What could be potential other locations? I'm sure you've thought about this. I know you don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I'm sure you've thought about this. Yeah, I've thought about it, but it's, yeah. This screams Richmond, Virginia to me. Yeah, there are a few parks going up. Remember, these things are popping up everywhere. So Richmond's a big town, of course.

You have to compare how many competitors you have. So I would have to do a demographic analysis, but I haven't done that yet. What's the analysis, the preferred demographics for a concept like this? Is it tied to affluence? Is it tied to density? Proximity of vehicles that are driving by, all of the above?

Not necessarily affluence. Okay. You'd be surprised. Okay. Yes, not that. Plus, I want to make it affordable for everybody. Okay. Probably population and then the population of children.

I'm targeting probably four to 14-year-olds, maybe about 14, 15, they start aging out. Before that, you don't want these two-year-old, three-year-old kids get run over by the bigger kids. In order to counter that, by the way, we might have time dedicated to toddlers or, you know, if the demand is there, certain age and under only. But yeah, mainly targeting four to 14 year olds at this point. But of course we'll see what happens.

You know, we'll keep data on all the customers that come in and try to respond to the demand. Derek Bond watching the program. He's a serial entrepreneur himself. He owns the Moe's barbecue location on Ivy Road. He owns the melting pot. He says, could you give some insight into sales projections with the business? Well, I mean, can I say this? Yeah.

Before we go to sales projections, everyone is so curious about this. It would seem like to me, before you even, the break even point for something like this, he's got to be flirting with the overheads like 100k a month, flirting with 100k a month here. Well, I just want to survive at this point. Okay, okay.

I mean, you got a lot of overhead here. Yeah, a lot of overhead, significant overhead. There's rent, there's employees, there's labor. You just kind of give us a glimpse into the insurance right there. Right, there you go, yeah, a lot of overhead. Any sales projections back of the napkin? Yeah, but really at this point I just want to survive. Okay, you know, but but you can also you can look at that as That's a high risk high overhead but the other side of that coin is

That it also keeps out competitors. Can I give him the other side of the coin? Yeah, here's the other side of the coin this guy with this business He basically in a lot of ways has a moat around the business. Because look at how much it costs to build this from scratch and look how much it costs to manage the business on a monthly basis. A lot of people can open up coffee shops. A lot of people aren't going to be opening up, you call them FECs? FECs, yeah. Yeah, Family Entertainment Centers. Right, that's right. I mean, this is a moat, so in a lot of ways he could be the big shark in the pond here, or perhaps the only shark in the pond. That's right. Right? That's right, and you know, I think Charleston's about

70,000, Albemarle's another 110, 120,000, so you're almost at 200,000 people there alone. You have these counties, 10, 20, 30,000 people, but that 10, 20, 30,000, album models another 110, 120,000. So you're almost at 200,000 people there alone. You have these counties, 10, 20, 30,000 people. But that 10, 20, 30,000 adds up. So you end up with a few hundred thousand people if you're the only game in town. Have you brought your kids to a birthday party yet? Oh, all the time. Yeah. I mean, birthday parties aren't $50 anymore.

Dude, this is bananas. So our 7‑year-old, we're going through this literally right now. Our soon-to-be seven-year-old, his birthday party, his birthday's in seven days. And a lot of the kids now are doing Nerf gun birthday parties. That's right. And they're capped at 20 kids. That's right. A birthday party for 20 kids where they go around and they shoot nerf tiny darts at each other while wearing protective eye protection in a gymnasium for two hours.

You get 90 minutes of play shooting nerf guns at each other plus 30 minutes in a party room for gifts and cake eating. Two hours total. What do you think, I'll flip the script to you. What do you think that two hours was gonna cost our family for 20 kids, him and 19 of his friends? I'm hoping a lot. How much do you think it is?

$300, two, three? 700 bucks. Wow. My gosh. Insane. Right. $700 for two hours, a Nerf gun birthday party, and a gymnasium, and then 30 minutes of eating cake. That's why I think this idea is going to kill. So

we basically went to our son. I said, son, your mom and I could invite 19 of your friends, and we can do this for you, because we love you. Right. And your dad works his ass off. Right. Okay. and every dollar counts. Or we could have a day that's specific for you where your grandparents will come down, me and mom and your brother will from start of the day to the end of the day spoil you with your favorite place to eat, Pokemon cards,

all the stuff that you wanna do. You thought about it for a week and he says, I wanna do the day for me here. Thank God. But it was $700. It's bananas. So can you imagine if I have ten party rooms going on the weekend? You can do the calculations. And you know what the bananas thing is? I don't want to charge $700. I don't want to do that. Sure. But the banana things for your model here is there's a waiting list for people to have these nerve gun parties. We were chomping.

We couldn't even do it on the day we wanted to. So many people wanted to do it. That's why I know you're on to something here. And again, if you look at the data, data is data. History doesn't always predict the future, but it gives you some idea of how successful or not successful you'll be. And if you look at the data where these parks are doing well

and you look at the towns they're supplying and the population that they're supplying, I think there's a good chance that this will be successful. I think there's a very good chance it's gonna be successful. This question has come in. Is he open-minded to having partners or getting capital investments at this point?

You're already getting people's... Yeah, wow. Well, I appreciate the confidence. I don't know if it's necessary at this point, but you never know what happens if this ends up working out. I mean, certainly get in touch with me. We can talk about how things work in the future.

I'd recommend you wait to see if I'm successful or not. I may not be successful and you may not want to partner with me. You got Keith Lefkoff watching the program in Boca Raton, Florida right now. He's giving you some props. All right. On the show right now. Viewers and listeners, if you have any questions for Daniel, put them in the feed. I will relay them live on air. This is a great question. What keeps you up at night when it comes to this business? I don't lose sleep. Wow. I don't lose sleep over it. I love your confidence.

I'm going through medicine, through residency, trying to revive people that are dead. You have to learn to stay calm. If not, then if you don't control your emotions, you blank out and somebody can literally die. So that trained me. So, you know, I count on the data. Like I said, the research I've done, whatever will happen will happen. Neil Taylor watching the program, he says, we cannot wait.

He says, we will be there from day one. Thank you so much for this endeavor. Neil Taylor, thank you for watching the show. You got viewers and listeners left and right watching the program. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get to all these comments at the 122 marker of the I Love Seville show with a couple of topics still left to cover.

Here's a very good question for you here. What do your twin daughters think of Daddy's idea? Oh, they're excited. He's got twin 9-year-old daughters. Yeah. Ariel and Eden are their names. Okay. And I love them. They're my whole life. Okay.

They're excited. Of course they're excited. So they want to bring their friends there and have their parties there. Are they going to help contribute or? They do. They do. I take what they say They do. I take what they say to heart, probably more so than anybody, who knows better than nine year old kids what I should or shouldn't do. So I ask them and ask their friends what they think about things. A wise mentor of mine once said, Jerry, consider my advice as much as you consider the advice of the consumer to be.

The consumer to be will offer counsel whether you want to take it or not that is perhaps more valuable than I can as a 63-year-old mentor. Literally that's the advice he gave me, and that's exactly what Daniel is saying. Consider what kids are doing with their behaviors with building your future businesses. That's very sage advice. All right. Things that we don't need to know here as we wind down the interview. Other items out of the notebook that should be out there.

You got the community watching you right now in the water cooler of Charlottesville. Anything else we should be considering? Just one more thing. Also, my wife, Lauren, is very supportive of me. So I'm very- Your wife's name is Lauren? Lauren, yeah. Lauren.

Fantastic name right there. Yeah, thank you. I'll let her know. But yeah, so my family's very supportive. That's why I don't lose sleep at night. They have confidence in me. And what will happen will happen. How do you manage your time with, sounds like you own a fair amount of real estate.

Yeah, I've been doing it a long time. Yeah, how do you manage your time with a medical practice, your real estate holdings, with this, with your daughters, with your wife? Yeah, people ask me that question all the time. I work two days a week in medicine. the medical practice, your real estate holdings with this, with your daughters, with your wife? Yeah, people ask me that question all the time. You know, I work two days a week in medicine. And I do a lot of telemed now.

I learned to crunch. I think it's just getting rid of the frivolous nonsense that comes with everything and really focusing on only what's necessary. You know, getting rid of the waste. And then a lot of those properties, you know, I do have people that work for me, but I actually fix them up myself. And I fix them up to make them,

I try to make them tenant proof, bulletproof. So tenants don't damage it. Things are built to last. And when you do that, when you put more money into things at the beginning and more effort and more quality, you have to go back fewer times.

Same thing with my patients. If you take care of your patients, they don't tend to need you as much. So every single patient of mine has my cell phone number. I give everybody my cell phone number. And I noticed during residency, if you didn't explain to somebody why they were being admitted to the hospital, you would get calls after calls. But if you sat down with people when they came in explain the disease process let them know what was happening let them know about the future they seem to be relaxed you'd get called

a lot less so I guess somehow that just frees up a lot of time for me dude I love this guy absolutely I absolutely love Daniel man this guy's got such a cool vibe in the words of us Scott, the late great Stuart Scott, this dude is cooler than the other side of the pillow. Daniel Halpert. How about this? I don't get the impression that you're spending a lot of time streaming content on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Yeah, no, we don't have a television in the house. You don't have a TV? No, and that was the best thing we did. Your entire house? Yeah, my wife and I decided that when we had children. No tell, we got rid of the television. And let me tell, I don't want to show, I don't want to brag about my kids,

but you know, they are avid avid readers. Like, I mean, reading way ahead of their grade. And also when they were tested, they do a nationwide standardized test. They're like in the top 1% of everything and I attribute a lot of that to not having television. They get an hour of screen time on Saturday and an hour of screen time on Sunday. Sometimes they let them watch a little bit on the Internet but

other than that we limit that. And because we limit the entertainment coming, a lot of that is just noise. They're forced to have the entertainment in other ways so one way they do that is through books. So yeah, no television. You have to get rid of the frivolous things. No television, no cable, nothing. That's absolutely unbelievable.

You just blew my mind here. I want to continue the interview after that answer right there. What does Daniel think the future is of office real estate? There's a boatload of vacant office real estate, and the future of commercial and retail real estate that's vacant. What's the future there? I only have one commercial building, so I'm far from an expert. But anytime I invest in something, and again, I'm not saying I'm the best investor in the

world, but I always try to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. So 2008, 2009, broader crash, I bought up everything. All of my revenue that generated from the medical practice, right into real estate. I always try to do the opposite. Now all of a sudden everybody's buying up everything. Now's the time to get out. You know, but all I predicted within the next two years, it'll probably be a nice correction. I'm sure it's starting already. But over this past several years, I haven't purchased any property because I think it's high. So when people, when everybody wants to buy, that's the time, no, I'm backing off. And when everybody tells you, oh, it's the end of America,

it's the end of capitalism, it's the end of the real estate market, that's my trigger to buy. So I always try to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. He's a man of the Warren Buffett school thought, be greedy when people are scared. That's right. And be scared when people are greedy. That's right.

I love that. George Gilmer is watching the program. Are you taking new patients? She's ready to sign up right now. Yeah, of course. Culpepper. Yeah, our number is 540-423-6239. We do interventional pain management and also we started doing suboxone for people that suffer from opioid addiction and dependency because unfortunately, it's a big problem in the whole country, but also in Culpepper. I love it. This interview is absolutely fantastic.

Judah Wickauer, if you could snap a picture real quick here of Daniel on the set. I want to save this picture because I think this is going to be a memento of a man who's going to be extremely successful in his professional endeavors. And I want to get a picture and say that he was in our studio at one time hanging on the wall right there.

We're literally getting a photo of Daniel on the show. Coco's Adventure Factory is going to be a success folks. The old Big Lots location, Seminole Square Shopping Center. The opening is planned for early next year, maybe January of next year, maybe February depending on how everything goes. And it's an opportunity for you to take your kids and have experiences with them tied to activities and athletics and getting off the couch and away from the screens and I will champion anybody in the business space that is willing or coming up with an idea to get my kids and kids out there off of screens.

That is drugs for our kids, folks. Daniel, I am so grateful for your time. This was so much fun. Yeah same here. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on the program. J-Dubbs will give some instructions there. Daniel you can put me on a one-shot here and I'll dot the i's and cross the t's on the show. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Guys, I think this concept is going to absolutely crush it. I truly truly do and I am grateful for somebody, I'm grateful for somebody that is willing to take this kind of risk for the betterment of the community.

And I think this is something that is going to get, like I said, kids off the screens and back to a childhood that was similar to what, you know, older millennials who our parents had. Remember when we were told by our parents to go outside and don't come back until we tell you to come, until it's dinner time, until the sun goes down or the street lights go out or the front lights go on on our house. That's how I was raised. My brother and I were outside playing football, playing basketball, playing soccer, playing tennis, playing golf, riding our bikes everywhere,

just outside in the cul-de-sac at the park on the soccer field. And we came back to the house when either the sun went down, the streetlights went on, or the lights on the front of the house were on. And so much, I think, in 2025, kids are just rotting on a couch, doom scrolling on YouTube, watching the worst of the content possible, just mindless content. And when we look back as parents, when people like us that have young kids are old and gray,

we're gonna say, how or why did we do this? Why did we allow our kids to do this, folks? There's a reason why the C-suite of social media companies do not allow their children to utilize their respective apps. Judah Wickauer, I wanna highlight an intriguing listing. This is 619 Belmont Avenue. If you can put the lower third on screen as we shift to the next topic. This listing, ladies and gentlemen, is starting to go viral a bit on social media. It is a Ness Realty listing and the agent is a very good one. It's Greer Murphy.

It's a home in Belmont that is not big. It's 1,600 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms. If you can rotate those photos on screen for us, that would be great. People are asking, take a look at the screen now for these photos. 619 Belmont Avenue, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 1,600 square feet.

It's going viral on the internet locally because of the price tag. I want to highlight the fact that this is three lots here. Yes, the price ain't cheap. And no, the house is not big. And yes, the house is a little bit older in the tooth from an age standpoint. We're talking about a house built 105 years ago. This house is over a century old. But the potential here guys is with the three lots that come with the purchase.

This is a three lot parcel in Belmont. So while folks are sticker shocked with $960,000 asking prices and three bedrooms and two baths and 1600 square feet and a quarter acre lot on a home That's 105 years old I remind you to read the details and the details suggest upside tied to a three lot parcel and one of the toniest of neighborhoods in the city of Charlottesville Belmont which is in walking distance of downtown and the downtown mall

in Belmont, which is in walking distance of downtown, in the downtown mall. I loved the interview today. I'm gonna follow up with Daniel via text and just thank him for coming on. I look forward to continuing to spotlight Daniel on this show in Coco's Adventure Park. One of my favorite things about this show is the crossroads of championing entrepreneurs

and risk takers and capitalists, people that choose to run a business in the black for profit but doing it in a way where they leave the community in a better place than they first arrived. There's absolutely nothing wrong in life for being a businessman or a businesswoman or someone who pursues a for-profitable business. And if you do it in a way where you leave your community in a better place than you first arrive, then you are a conscious capitalist or a social entrepreneur. And Daniel embodies those qualities.

I would like to think that we embody those qualities as well here on the I Love Seville show and at our Miller organization. Judah Wickhauer is the man behind the camera. My name is Jerry Miller. A real talk with Keith Smith. The talk show is tomorrow at 10.15 a.m. We will have Ned Galloway, a supervisor with Alamaro County on the show. We'll have Chris Fairchild, a supervisor with Fluvanna County on the show. 10.15 a.m. tomorrow, Keith Smith of course in the house, and then we'll close the week down with the I Love Seaville show at 1230. For Daniel and Judah, my name is Jerry Miller. Thank you..