The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Will New Grocery Store In Fifeville Succeed?; Albemarle County v CVille: Who Is Winning?

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Will New Grocery Store In Fifeville Succeed? Albemarle County v CVille: Who Is Winning? Cavalier Crossing Apartments Sold For $20.5M Cavalier Crossing Purchased For $11.2M In 2017 Cavalier Crossing Converting To Luxury Units Lewis Mountain Home Now Under Contract 1002 SE 2nd St: $520K Ask, 2BR, 1BA, 1100 SQ 1002 SE 2nd St: Sold For $290K In June, 2023 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.

Thank you so much. Grateful for your viewership, your listenership, the feedback, the commentary, the content suggestions we receive from you guys. Thank you so much. If you missed the Jerry Ratcliffe, the Jerry and Jerry show this morning, it's archived wherever you get your social media content. It was awesome. We had Antonio Rice, Papa Who, on the show in studio. He was part of the early stages of the George Welsh era, where he turned, along with his teammates and the Welsh coaching staff, the football program around the football team here in Charlottesville at UVA was the laughingstock of college football in the early 80s, 81, 82, in the 70s, literally the doormat of all of college football.

And a head football coach from the Naval Academy, he brings in a coaching staff full of moxie and accountability measures and a military-type perspective to Charlottesville. And they get UVA into the Peach Bowl soon thereafter. I mentioned this on the Jerry and Jerry show, that 84 Peach Bowl team still talked about in our house, in the Miller house

over the holidays. Antonio Rice on the Jerry and Jerry show, wherever you get your podcasting content. For the viewers and listeners watching the show, we would love if you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thank you, Stephanie, for doing that. I think it is potentially our most consistent platform from a reliability standpoint. We talk on this program, the three prongs of a good show. The first prong is,

do we have quality content to talk about? The second prong, are Judah and I able to educate, entertain, and enlighten you, the viewer and listener, on the content we want to cover. Then the third prong is consistency in technology and infrastructure. And there's four softwares that we have married for the I Love Seville Network. Seven cameras, five microphones, a bunch of technology, an internet service provider. And if one's a little wonky, it can make for some tough sledding. I've noticed the platform that is most consistent from a buffering and or viewer-listener standpoint, it's YouTube, so please subscribe to that channel and follow us there. We're going to cover a lot on the program. We're going to talk about this Fifeville grocery store.

I'm going to ask this question, Judah. If a grocery store on Preston Avenue reads grocery store, is having a hard time maintaining success and keeping its shelves full, why will a grocery store in Fifeville have more longevity, more customer support, and a more significant runway of success? I think it's a fair question. We know Fifeville is a grocery desert. We have a number of food deserts in the city. It's crazy to think about that in 2024, there's still pockets of a cosmopolitan city like Charlottesville that has food deserts, where residents who don't have access to vehicles do not have, in turn, access to healthy food for their kids to eat to survive. It's sad to hear that. But there are pockets in the city that are deserts to food. Fifeville's one of them.

The Woodard family, Keith Woodard, the founder, Anthony Woodard, the son taking over for Keith, are working with the Fifeville neighborhood associations. And they're brainstorming, they're collaborating, they're strategizing on a grocery store. What's that look like? Does it look like a co-op? Does it look like a grocery store that offers vouchers for folks who may not be able to you know, afford full ticket items? Does it look smaller in footprint like a Trader Joe's? Is it larger in footprint like a Wegmans? Is it select items tailor-made for a neighborhood? You see that with the food line down Fifth Street Extended. You compare the items in the food line down Fifth Street Extended to the food line down Avon Extended, and it's very different in its produce

and some of the items it stocks on the shelves. Is that what we could see with this very local Fifeville grocery store? And most importantly, I'm going to ask you this question. Will a grocery store in Fifeville have success if a counterpart to it, Reed's, which has been around for an eternity, is struggling to find success on Preston Avenue a mere handful of blocks over. We'll talk about that today. We'll talk Albemarle County versus the city of Charlottesville. Who is winning this battle and why? It's a friendly competition. It's a competition rooted in a revenue sharing agreement. It's a competition because Albemarle County surrounds the city of Charlottesville jurisdiction-wise.

You could be driving anywhere in the city, and bing, bam, boom, you're in Albemarle County. So they will forever be linked. They will forever be married. They will forever be in competition with one another. It's clear to me there's one jurisdiction that's pulled ahead from a quality-of-life standpoint, from an economy standpoint, from a politics standpoint, from a crime standpoint, from a houselessness standpoint,

from an overall standpoint. And it pains me to say which one, but we'll answer it today. Cavalier Crossing, an apartment tower just over that mythical city-county line, has now sold. Charlottesville tomorrow, I'm giving you props yet again. The nonprofit news organizations got great coverage on the sale of Cavalier Crossing. And what is perhaps the last affordable rental offering from a free market standpoint, right? A place that rents individual bedrooms from a free market standpoint, right? Yeah.

A place that rents individual bedrooms to the tune of $560 a night for an individual bedroom, shared kitchen, shared living room, but a bedroom that locks. Some time ago, I looked at purchasing a couple of units at Eagles Landing. Eagles Landing, much like Cavalier Crossing, you have three- and four-bedroom setups. You walk in the main door of the unit,

and there's a kitchen and a living room that's shared by the three or four bedrooms in each unit. Each unit has its own lock on the door, so a resident of a unit may have roommates, they share walls with other people, but their bedroom is their private sanctuary, which they can deadbolt and lock so no one can enter. There's a key to get into the main room, the front door, where you walk into a living room and kitchen setup, and then a locking mechanism to get into the bedroom. The Eagles landing units, when I looked at purchasing them, it was kind of a bulk purchase, about $1.40 a unit.

And I would have ended up with 12 doors. Chose to pass on that purchase, but it had upside. It had upside because of the diversity of 12 doors and the fact that you were renting to 12 different potentially tenants, which bred a bit of hedge risk for me, if you may. The reason I passed on the deal was the concern I had of potentially finding four tenants, or 12 tenants, excuse me, and having to maintain units. And I thought I could make a better return in the office game we currently are at, the executive office game,

and that's where we ended up taking deeper positions. I know the Cavalier Crossing model well. I know the Eagles landing model well. And frankly, after reading this story from Charlottesville tomorrow, perhaps I made a mistake. Cavalier Crossing has been purchased, the apartment tower, just over the city line. The new owners of Cavalier Crossing are a firm out of Northern Virginia,

Bonaventure Multifamily Income Trust. And Bonaventure Multifamily Income Trust is based in Alexander, Virginia. They have $2.3 billion in assets in their portfolio. $2.3 billion with a B. Bonaventure Multifamily Income Trust acquired Cavalier Crossing in May 2024 for $20,500,000, according to the Albemarle County GIS. Listen to this. You want to hear about multifamily return, multifamily investment return? The previous owner of Cavalier Crossing, a firm called Pierce Education Properties,

they bought Cavalier Crossing in 2017 for $11.2 million. Seven years later, they more than 2x their investment. $11.2 million in 2017, they exit close to 2x. Let me, words matter. 20.5 million. They exit for 20,500,000. Close to 2x. That's a hell of a return in seven years. 11.2 million, $20,500,000 exit. Now here's the catch. And here's why maybe I made a mistake. Hindsight's 20-20. I make mistakes all the time. You learn from them. You learn from them.

With Cavalier Crossing having a new owner, Bonaventure Multifamily Income Trust, Judah, they are going to take the $20,500,000 they used to purchase the apartments, and they are going to completely change the Cavalier Crossing model. Individual rooms that could rent for $560 a month, or a four-bedroom suite, Judah, that's going to rent for $2,300 a month with utilities included, are now, ladies and gentlemen, going to be pivoted and transitioned into luxury apartments. The highest end of the high end is what they're predicting. And the unfortunate nature of what's happening is they're terminating leases.

They're giving residents of Cavalier Crossing the 60-day notice that's required by law and saying your lease is not going to be renewed we're sorry and a lot of the residents in these apartments there's 144 three and four bedroom apartments in the complex 500 and 520 total bedrooms you're looking at a nice little cash cow here not a bad cap right here let's say 520 bedrooms. Let's use $560 a bedroom. You're looking at $291,200 a month in rent roll, Judah. 520 times 560. $291,200 a month in rent. Gross rents over the course of a calendar year, $3,500,000. $3,494,400 to be exact. Okay? And when you have in Alexandria a company that's invested over $20 million into purchasing this,

they're going to try to maximize margin as much as possible. And how they're going to maximize margin is putting lipstick on the pig. And when you lipstick the pig, you're going to say, I'm going to give the pig some pearls, some cashmere, some Louis Vuitton, some Dolce & Gabbana, some Jimmy Choo's. I'm going to make sure they're spray tanned. I'm going to make sure they're Revlon. And then I'm going to say, look at what we've done to the pig. Let's try to three, four or five X the rents. Let's try to compete with a dairy market. Let's try to compete with the Tony apartments on Let's try to compete with the Tony Apartments on West Main Street

and Tony Apartments around the downtown mall because we're a hop, skip, and a jump from them. Maybe we'll be able to get $4,000 for a four-bedroom as opposed to $2,600. So that's what's happening. And the residents of Cavalier Crossing, the tenants of Cavalier Crossing, are not having their leases renewed. And the unfortunate nature of this transition, this is gentrification at its finest or at its worst,

depending on how you look at the glass, half full or not. What is happening here is the residents that are paying $560 a month are realizing, I can't find $560 a month anywhere else except Eagles Landing. Eagles Landing, the place I looked at for buying three units, 12 doors, passed on the deal. Now Eagles Landing is going to have even more demand than it ever has had before.

It's right next door to Cavalier Crossing, mind you. And the rents at Eagles Landing are going to go up and people are going to get squeezed. And they're going to get squeezed into cars or they're going to get squeezed onto the streets. And that's how the population that is houseless increases and that's how those that are on the financial margin living in a poverty stratosphere or ecosystem

will deepen in number. We're watching it happen right before our eyes. We'll unpack that story today for you on the I Love Seville show. I'll highlight yesterday, I said the Lewis Mountain home that went on the market. We highlighted it yesterday. I said this is going to go under contract right away. Right after the show happened, 2025 Thompson Road, T-H-O-M-S-O-N Road, under contract. Within hours after the I Love Seville Show airing yesterday, Judah.

How about you on a two-shot? I said, Judah, do you want to make a bet? I'll put the over under at nine houses. I'll alter the bet. Between today and December 31, 2024, close of business 2024. Nine additional houses in Lewis Mountain. Will they come on the market from a for-sale standpoint because of the massive zoning changes that are happening in particular at that neighborhood because of proximity to UVA? I'll alter the bet. I'll sweeten the bet. I'll make the proposition bet a little more appealing for you. I'll count 2025 Thompson Road as one in your corner. So we'll set the over-under at nine units from now until the end of the year, and you already have one that's checkmarked in your category. You said you would take the under on 10 for a bottle of brown juice.

I said, well, why don't we go nine, make it even more fair for you. Now I'm throwing an additional unit. Do you want to bet a bottle of brown juice. I said, well, why don't we go nine? Make it even more fair for you. Now I'm throwing an additional unit. Do you want to bet a bottle of brown juice? We can even cap it at $75 or under that nine units, including this one that just went under contract, will come on the market in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood. You still win.

It sits on the office bar and you still drink from it. You realize that. Yeah. We both win either way. Just somebody pays for it. Yeah. Where are we going? Are we saying yes to that bet or no to that bet?

Are you saying I'm taking the under this time? You said you were, oh, excuse me. You were going to take? You said you were going to take the over. You were going to take the over, and you're going to have this one right here. I was going to take the under. Thank you for holding me accountable there. I had the under. You had the over. You get this one that goes pending to sweeten your pot, to tilt the odds to your favor.

So I just need eight more? Eight would be nine even. That's a push. Nobody wins. The house wins. Nine more. So you would need nine more. That's a push. Nobody wins. The house wins. Nine more. So you would need nine more. To go on the market.

And then you go over the nine, and you win the bet. I think you have yet to win a prop bet here on the I Love Siebel Show. That's why I usually don't go for them. So are you going to try to change the win-loss record here by taking this bet? You can think about it. I feel like I'm pressuring you into this. Yeah, I'll think about it. Okay.

What storyline is most compelling to you? Is it the fact that Cavalier Crossing has now sold for $20,500,000 to an out-of-market owner that's going to convert $2,600 a month four-bedroom units into 2X the rent roll? Is it the 1,002 Southeast 2nd Street listing that's on the market right now with the $520,000 asking price, a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house that's 1,100 square feet that sold in June of last year for $290,000? Or is it the Fifeville grocery store storyline? I'm curious which one is most compelling to you. You know, I think they're all connected.

There's so much going on in Charlottesville in terms of property and affordability. And I can't really choose one of these. You've got to choose. I don't have to choose. They're all connected. Which storyline is most compelling? All right.

Let's see. I'll pick the grocery store in Fifo. Why the Fifo grocery store? That one's intriguing to me as well. I find that intriguing. Why intriguing to you? I just picked it. No, I'm just kidding. I find it intriguing because with a lot of these stories that we're talking about, dealing with, I think, a more adversarial nature of property and property management and property buying and selling, it's nice to have a story where the neighborhood and the developers are working together. Do you think a Fifeville grocery store is going to work?

You had an IGA on Cherry Avenue. You had a Kim's Market on Cherry Avenue. Both of them failed. They dealt with shoplifting. They dealt with property destruction and vandalism. They dealt with crime in the parking lot, drug dealing in the parking lot. And Judah, perhaps the most concerning

or the most damning of this story line is three blocks removed, maybe four blocks removed, maybe four blocks removed since a local institution in Reeds. And Reeds, not even a year ago, had to do a GoFundMe to meet its payroll

and pay its bills, even though it laid off a large portion of its staff. And still, if you go into Reeds today, the shelves are not at capacity. Does anyone think the grocery model, especially with a one-unit owner, is primed for success in the era of Instacart, online grocery delivery, and the obscene economies of scale that Walmart, Target, and stores like Kroger and Wegmans have. We're talking the slimmest of margins business-wise, the grocery business. It's going to work there.

Come on. Why are we setting up a situation that's destined for potential failure? Yesterday we talked on the show, and I'll stop talking, you jumped in. Yesterday we talked on the show, the fastest growing category for new jobs, Citizens for Responsible Planning, fantastic research. The fastest category for new jobs in the city of Charlottesville are jobs that are hourly, low-paying, tied to food and beverage, hospitality, and tourism in the city of Charlottesville. We're growing jobs that can't afford to live in the city and are seasonal in nature. And we're now taking away a critical component for folks to live in that are at this price point, $20,000, $30,000 a year in earnings, and we're converting it into luxury units, 500 and some bedrooms, going the way of bougie, baller,

Bobby Big Balls. Talk to me, Judah. Talk to me. Please talk to me. Oh, man. Where do I start? First of all, I think that a lot of things have changed. Not all of them for the better, but we've got, I think, a very different complexion of police force

since the Kims and the IGA before that. I don't know if that will prevent or cut down... Kim's and IGA were during the Tim Longo era. Chief Tim Longo ran the city of Charlottesville into a pretty good position crime-wise. You can say between the Longo and the Chief Katchus era, and Chief Katchus is doing fantastic work here in the city, you can say that Al Thomas and Rashal Brackney

had the city in a dumpster fire, but Longo and Katchus, Yeoman's work, those two chiefs, pushing back on you, J-dubs. Keep going. I'm not buying that. I'm just saying that there are a lot of things that have changed. That's one of them. There's also the fact that this is a

collaboration, hopefully, will continue to be a collaboration between the neighborhood and the developers. Maybe that collaboration will have some effect on the tenor of business that they see there.

Maybe the people in the neighborhood will police themselves, in a manner of speaking, and come down hard on anyone that's causing issues at the grocery store once it's built. I don't know. But I have to think that there's a reason that Woodard would be willing to try something like this rather than just appeasing some people in a neighborhood. Well, I think one of the reasons the Woodard family wouldn't try something like this is because the upside of development

that comes with the grocery store. It's called an olive branch. Almost a proffer, if you may. It's called goodwill. It's called, I give a little, so I get some. But if this is as doomed as you imply it is, then why? Do you believe in the grocery business as it applies to brick and mortars?

Yeah. You do? Do I believe that it's a money maker? Viable, sustainable business. You believe grocery stores are a viable and sustainable business? I mean, are you trying to say that grocery stores are going to dry up and be no more? I think the problem is less, is less of an issue with viability and more an issue with, you know, there are a lot of problems with our country and one of them is, is inflation. And I think that's hurting far more businesses than we care to admit.

I don't think that's going to change anytime soon, but if it doesn't, it's not just going to be grocery stores that dry up and go out of business. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Put those lower thirds on screen if you can. Bill McChesney, the mayor of McIntyre,

watching the program. Mr. McChesney has what we like to call in this program institutional memory. I say the man has been around a fantastic time and he's aging like a fine wine. Others would say he's been around the block. He has these comments. He said, what killed this Cherry Avenue IGA? There was a Tom Thumb market in the Cherry Avenue shopping center and then a 7-Eleven and they are all gone. Why is that?

He says a grocery store on Cherry Avenue in Fifeville is wishful thinking, and he highlights that that neighborhood also had a Kentucky Fried Chicken that closed down. We'll go to LinkedIn. This is from Mr. John Blair, number two in the family. You're getting photos on screen. He says, I think the Fifeville grocery store is a folly in the making. Take a look at this chart of Kroger's profit margins since 2012.

Kroger's profit margin averages about 2% over 12 years. If a chain like Kroger with its cold chain inventory advantages, scale advantages, and legacy real estate advantages can only manage a 2% profit margin. Explain to me how an independent grocery store will succeed. It just does not make sense. And he shares the link to the Kroger chart. You can find that in the comments section on LinkedIn where this show is airing upon.

I'm going to go to James Watson shortly. Before I do, I'm going to go to James Watson shortly. Before I do, I'm going to go to Deep Throat, number one in the family. He says this, I 100% agree with your take, Jerry, on the grocery store. It is like the upzoners' insistence on including all these crazy uses in RA. Like, dude, what planet are you from to think coffee shops will work in the middle of twisty roads with houses on three-quarter acres and no parking? Come back to Earth, my socialist friends, Deep Throat says. He also says independent grocery stores that succeed are either very high-end or they're co-ops. He says it's very difficult for an independent grocery store

to make it for working class folks. James Watson on the I Love Seville Facebook page disagrees. He says Cherry Avenue has more pedestrians within a five minute walk plus tons of potential customers who can easily turn into the lot as they drive down Cherry. The park is also very vibrant. He's pointing to Tonsler Park. Turning off of Preston onto Reeds can be very challenging

compared to turning off Cherry Avenue to some degree. Appreciate that comment, James Watson. Those are great points. We love when you watch the show, James. Those are fantastic points. And I was thinking the same thing. I feel like that area has more of a neighborhood than Reed's. Reed's, it has neighborhoods nearby,

but nothing that really, as James Watson said, not a lot of foot traffic. Damn, we've got some really good intel coming in on Cavalier Crossing. On the receiver bank holding the note. I'll get to the Cavalier Crossing commentary that's coming in. This is coming in via Facebook message as well on Fifeville. Hope the new grocery succeeds. It's an uphill battle for a neighborhood-specific grocer to survive with low margins

when the neighborhood doesn't have true metro density. What boutique player has survived long-term other than Foods of All Nations? I was going to point to Foods of All Nations. You go into Foods of All Nations. I've been shopping at Foods of All Nations more of late as we've moved to that side of town. Foods of All Nations is having success, but it is significantly more expensive to shop at Foods of All Nations than, say, a Wegmans or even a Teeter. You're shopping at Foods of All Nations because of convenience, because of proximity. And Foods of All Nations understands that its position on the west side of town,

on Ivy Road, the west side of, is that just over the county line? The county line is at the car wash at the University Shopping Center. Is that just over past the car wash? It is, right? You're asking me where the county line is at the car wash at the university shopping center. Is that just over past the car wash? It is, right? You're asking me where the county line is? The county line's at the car wash by the university shopping center. Is that on the other side? I should know this. I drive by this every day. God. Anyway, long story short, Foods of All Nations is winning because of where it's located, because of the clientele that's driving by it into work and back home every day, because it has a massive parking lot. And it understands

for it to have success long term, it's going to have to have goods that are 25, 30 percent, in some cases, higher than a Teeter, a Kroger, or a Wegmans. And that's why it's winning. The market advantages for a grocery store in Fifeville are not the same as Foods of All Nations. That's fair. You look at the Main Street Market in the Purple Building, Alan Kajin's building, you see John Grisham shopping there all the time. You go in there, it is super baller, but they do, if you call that, you call it probably a specialty grocery store. They do very few select things priced extremely priced, not in the most affordable fashion, but they sell because of the clientele. Friend of the program, Erin King works at that program. Ooh, Erin's watching

the program. She says, you pass foods before you get to the car wash. Not by much though. Oh, thank you very much, Erin. You pass foods of all nations before you get to the car wash. So EK, that's the city right there. Thank you, EK. She works at

Feast. Feast wins or, yeah, Feast in the purple building, Feast wins because they know what they do right and they stick to it. They sell, what, less than 50 items, 50 types of product when it comes down to it, high-end sandwiches, and her piece of the business,

the gift element, where law firms and other Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, are mailed to people. Fantastic packages that she manages on top of other streams of the business. That's why Feast wins. Feast now owned by the Merry Mill Vineyard couple. And I'm not trying to poo-poo on anything.

I understand the Fifeville is a food desert. But the likelihood of a grocery store having success on cherry is just not realistic. And perhaps when we go into these meetings, when we go into these meetings, we need to have the conversation that is authentic

and maybe raw and maybe, you know, when a doctor comes to deliver the news to family members when he leaves the operating room or the emergency room, does the doctor say,

you know what, if your entire family rallies around him and puts their arm around his shoulders and gets a wet towel and puts it around his neck and rubs his back and lotions his dry skin and strokes his hair with a wet cloth, he's going to beat stage four cancer. But doctor, he came in for a stubbed toe.

Or does the doctor say, your loved one is in dire straits and probably has 30, 60, 90 days to live. Let's have the right conversations and not hopeful conversations. People are going to blow that out of proportion.

Take me out of context there. But I would rather know the truth, even if the truth is not what I want to hear, than have someone blow smoke up my tuchus. You think that's what they're doing? Yeah. You think they have no intention of building anything? No. I think there's intention of building it. I think there's actual intention of building it. Genuine intention to build it. And when the intention is materialized and when materialized

becomes reality and when reality flops, what does that do for anyone? Okay. So the alternative is just don't bother. I mean, it's an honest question. I'm not trying to sound flippant because... The alternative is... The alternative is create a digital delivery service. The alternative is figuring out an app with Fifeville

tied to local groceries or the food pantry. Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Where food can be delivered digitally. Where food can be at a pickup spot. So why not build that instead? That's my effing point.

We're falling in love with the romantic idea of a brick-and-mortar grocery at a food desert in the same location where an IGA and a Kim's Market flopped. But if you can build that, why not allow people to come in like in a grocery store? Is it the fact that a grocery store just can't work? Or is it the fact that... Do you know how much overhead is associated with a big store that has to be kept at refrigerator temperatures for much of its product. Wouldn't all those products have to be kept

at refrigerator temperatures anyways? But they could be done in a capacity that is already tied to existing properties and buildings. You can build a Fifeville digital grocery store that partners with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, with partners with food pantries, partners with Reeds, and have stuff delivered to a parking lot or a drop-off point

with pickup strategies. It doesn't have to be a box where ice cream and milk and Yoo-Hoo are kept at 55 degrees, 24-7, 365. Kind of like Relay Foods did. There it is. It's time to think creatively at a time where headwinds are realistic. My two cents. Other topics we want to get to,

unless, Judy, you want to dot the I's and cross the T's on this one. No, that's good. Kevin Yancey says, how is 40 years as an IGA a flop? Because, Kev. That's a good question. I mean, we had a local grocery store in Savannah that was, I don't know if it's still

in business. Maybe they've gone out of business because they couldn't make work in today's economy. Because the world has changed. You can't just say it worked for 40 years. It's going to keep working. You know who else said that? The carrier pigeon. Morse code, the yellow papers, the evening newspaper, the 6 o'clock and 11 o'clock news, and going into a bank to deposit your $5, $10, and $20 bills while waiting in line. You know who else said that?

U.S. currency. Print currency. Other topics we've got to get to. This one I found most intriguing. And I just got a fantastic DM with some color on this topic. First, we need to set the stage. Here's the stage. I'm giving, again, props to Charlottesville Tomorrow. Charlottesville Tomorrow, you've been doing great work lately.

Great work from Charlottesville Tomorrow on what it's been covering. Charlottesville Tomorrow got a story on the sale of Cavalier Crossing. In May of this year, an Alexandria, Northern Virginia firm purchased Cavalier Crossing that is just over the city line in Almaral County. This is off Old Lynchburg Road in the Fry Springs neighborhood. This is where the Villas at Southern Ridge is where we have a rental property.

This is where Eagle's Landing is. This is where the great Jim Shank had his barbershop. Love Jim Shank. I used to go to Jim Shank his barbershop. Love Jim Shank. I used to go to Jim Shank's barbershop, get a $12 or $13 cut, tip him a couple of bucks, and walk out with a pocket knife that I purchased for $15 from Jim Shank's barbershop.

Remember? I had one from there, too. I got like six Jim Shank parts. Go in there, get a haircut. Six different times he sells me a pocket knife or a switchblade or a flashlight sold me flashlights Cavalier Crossing purchased by an

Alexandria firm for $20,500,000 in May of this year the previous owner ladies and gentlemen Pierce Education Properties bought Cavalier Crossing in 2017 for $11.2 million they sold it for $20.5 million.

You're talking a pretty significant owner now. The owner, Bonaventure Multifamily Income Trust, has $2,300,000 in assets as of the November 2023 issue of Virginia Business Magazine. Cavalier Crossing is an important component to housing in our area. 520 bedrooms. Those 520 bedrooms rent for about $560 each. 520 times 560, a rent roll of $291,200 a month times 12 months, gross rents just under $3.5 million. You spend $20,500,000 to buy 520 bedrooms,

you're going to have to figure out how to make some money. How they're going to make some money is change them to luxury apartments. They're going to take three-bedroom units and four-bedroom units, and instead of renting them for $2,000 and change a month, they're going to up it to

$5,000 a month. You go from $560 a bedroom to say $1,100 a bedroom and you got $520 of them you just upped your rent roll to 572, 572,000 a month, 12 months,

$6,864,000 in gross rents. And that's probably under what they're going to try to do. 1,100 for a bedroom, basically it's a studio apartment. By the time it gets built, I'm sure it'll be a lot more. It's going to be more. Especially that location. Fantastic location. Here's the

crappy part. The crappy part first. People, the folks living in Cavalier Crossing that are spending $560 a month per bedroom, they're being, you can't use the word evicted they're not having their leases renewed they're getting 60 day notices

by the out of market apartment owner and they're going to wait to units are cleared out they're going to remodel them lipstick the pig and then they're going to reposition them and re-rent them at 2.5x clip.

The folks living at Cavalier Crossing, whether folks want to hear this or not, are a step or two above... Homeless? What more do you want? No. Yeah, yeah. I mean, some of them have come from homelessness.

Some of them have transitioned from houselessness or patch-em to Cavalier Crossing and have indicated their salaries $20,000 to $30,000 a year. This is one of two places they can afford to live, Eagles Landing being the other. Yeah. This is why when the city of Charlottesville offered the bridge loan

to the Carleton Avenue Mobile Home Park and when Habitat for Humanity and Piedmont Housing Alliance had to keep it mobile homes for 36 months, three years as part of the deal, mobile homes for 62, 63 mobile homes, 64 mobile homes, something like that,

that in the end, end city council offering that bridge loan actually did disservice to the community because if they allowed the unnamed anonymous seven million dollar buyer to acquire the couple acres that was the carlton mobile home park and actually build housing it would have created additional supply that would have helped more people in the end. They basically prioritize 65 families above 5 or 6x that many families. For three years. That was why I argued that if they saved that money

and let the developer buy the property, then the city could, if they so chose, use at least some of that money to help the residents find another place for their trailers. Instead, they've got three years, and ultimately... The trailers are going to get worse. Pretty much, well, the trailers don't matter. They're going to be gone in three years. Not going to be able to move them?

Go ahead. I'm sorry. But ultimately, Habitat's going to do the same thing the developers were. It just will probably be a different look and a different feel. And you know what's going to happen in three years from now? Cost of goods and labor are going to be three years more expensive than they are today. And when cost of goods and labor are 36 months more expensive than they are today,

Habitat and PHA are going to bring new construction to market that is 36 more expensive than it would have been today. Yeah. Because cost of goods and labor are that much more expensive. But we're off the topic du jour today as you're rotating lower thirds. And I don't know if that has anything to do with the original developer, because they were going to do the same thing. You don't know the timeline of the original developer. Do we have the Cavalier Crossing lower thirds on screen? Yeah. You don't know the timeline of the original developer. Do we have the Cavalier Crossing Lower Thirds on screen? Yeah. You don't know the timeline of the original developer.

We don't have any plans. We don't know what the original developer was going to do. I can assure you someone spending $7 million to buy a trailer park on Carlton was going to move faster than 36 months to develop. Yeah, that's true, but prices are going to go up anyways. 100%.

But someone who's got 7 million smackaroos on the line versus a non-profit that's taken a bridge loan from the city that is then going to use that bridge loan runway to find grants from the state or grants from somewhere else doesn't have nearly the same skin in the game as 7 million smackaroos. Not nearly the same skin in the game. And it's time we have frank conversations like that.

This whole show is about frank conversations. Frank conversations with Fifeville about the success and viability, sustainability of a grocery store in a market where grocery stores don't work. The frank conversation about waiting 36 months to build construction at a mobile home park when housing is needed now,

and frank conversation of Cavalier Crossing residents, hey, a luxury... Okay, but housing is... affordable housing is needed now. Didn't we come with the conclusion that any housing creates affordable housing? No now. Didn't we come with the conclusion that any housing creates affordable housing? No, we didn't. Any supply.

Is it the whole concept of the new zoning ordinance and the Gilligan gang? Any supply breeds affordability? That doesn't mean that we have to agree with that assumption. That's the whole new zoning ordinance theme. I know, and we've been talking about the fact that we don't believe that it's working or that it's ever going to work. I don't think it's ever going to work.

I don't think it's ever going to work. I think this is going to be one of the biggest backfires in Charlottesville history, and those that champion this concept should be held accountable. That's why I don't think we should pretend to go with the assumption that... Well, don't we have to give them more than six months? We just celebrate the six-month anniversary of the NZO. Because if we don't give them more runway, aren't they going to say,

hey, you never gave us a shot? I mean, it's not like we're stopping them. It's not like we're preventing anything from going forward. When does the same folks that pushed the city bridge loan Piedmont Housing Alliance and the city to bridge loan Habitat for Humanity to buy the trailer park, when does the city start getting involved? When do the same folks start pushing the county to do something with Eagles Landing or Cavalier Crossing? You're saying prevent the...

When do they start saying, hey, Alexander developer, $2.3 billion in assets. They need permitting to turn these houses into luxury. Right now they're $560. Don't give them the permits. Red tape them. Red tape them. Keep them $560 as long as possible. Are we in Arkansas? Is that Sam Walton?

Do the people do that? What? Try to red tape this Alexandria firm to death to keep the transition from happening, to maintain affordability for as long as possible? No, I don't think they're going to do that. This via Facebook DM, some color on the Cavalier Crossing deal.

The receiver bank holding the note toured every local multifamily player around Cavalier Crossing, and they all passed. Converting what was intended to be student housing with four-bedroom, four-bath to traditional multifamily involves a lot of interior rework in order to justify Stonefield rent comps, and managing individual bedrooms is a nightmare if it's not student housing with mom and dad guaranteeing the rents. The out-of-market company was probably looking for a placement of a 1031 funds exchange quickly.

I bet this sells again within three years. And that's from somebody I'm maintaining their identity. It is not Deep Throat, but it is another individual that is in this professional world, that knows the professional world. I won't say his employer. I won't say what he does professionally. But this man knows the game. That's why I pass on the Eagles Landing three-unit purchase.

Sounds like a quick flip. I said, am I want, do I want 12 additional doors in the portfolio where I'm going to have to rent to 12 additional people, 12 additional people at six or $700 a month and risk lease default on probably 15% of those, probably two to three of those each year, or do I want to stay in the executive office game where it's people's professional reputation on the line when it comes to the lease? I will say that Cavalier Crossing going to luxury does put more demand on Eagle's Landing.

And with Eagle's Landing, if you get first month's rent, last month's rent, and security deposit, everyone's like, oh, it's a boatload of money. That's like $1,700. Call it $600 a month, that's $1,800. That's way more doable. No doubt.

Anything you want to add on Cavalier Crossing? I mean, like you said, it sounds like a flip, just like the house that we're eventually going to get to. Can't wait to get to that one. Comments are coming in. This one. From Deep Throat. I think back to the late 1990s.

I had a girlfriend at Stanford Law School. She never learned how to drive. I could not walk to get groceries. Web van, which was the Instacart of the 1990s, could not make pure delivery work. So what they did is they would bring your order with a big van to a central parking lot on campus three times a week for two hours or so. Then you

go and pick up the groceries. He says just roll the Fife van into the parking lot and people can order online. That's the strategy. Again, like Relay. That's how we should be thinking. It's a shame that that didn't work out. That's how we should be thinking. It's a shame that that didn't work out.

This is how we should be thinking. We should be looking at community problems, community conundrums, through the lens of a small business owner or an entrepreneur's eye that has to stretch every dollar and figure out solutions to problems efficiently and quickly and effectively. That is what, and I'm not saying it's, that's what, all small business, survival of the effing fittest. What is my primary role? What do I do here?

Put out fires. Thank you. 16 years. Thank you to get that. That's what I do. Solve problems for clients. And we generate revenue on that problem-solving ability. Drinks today at 5.15 p.m. to figure out financing for a client purchasing a business.

That's what I'm doing. 5.15 p.m. today. We figure out the financing for the client purchasing the business. The client buys the business, improves the business. The business improves. The improvement covers the debt service of the financing. Everyone wins. Financing gets some bones if the business is collateral. Some points if the business is collateral. Client wins. Financing gets some bones with the business's collateral, some points with the business's

collateral. Client wins, buys the business, improves the business, improvement covers debt service, monthly nut. We win, commission on the deal, relationships built, new opportunities found. Do you want to talk about the next one with the lower third? Do you have the photos? This show's been pretty good today. What did you think? Yeah, I've got photos. Set the stage with the who, what, when, where, why.

Did this leave you mouth agape? It's pretty wild. All right, we're going to watch Judah in the who, what, when, where, why. Really? You know I'm great at that. Way to lead with confidence over there, Wicow. You're the one that's usually putting me down, so hey. I'm what?

I figured I'd beat you to the punch. Let's see. I don't put you down. I hold you accountable. It's a fine line. I'm supposed to hold you accountable. So,

anyways. I was having this conversation with somebody. Alright, go ahead. I'm distracted. Go ahead. I mean having this conversation with somebody alright go ahead I'm distracted go ahead I mean this is essentially a story we've been seeing repeatedly for the last two or three years

where can you go who what when where why okay an unnamed developer no what that's the who damn it Okay. An unnamed developer. No. What? That's the who.

Damn it. First, it's public record. It's in the Charlottesville GIS. Which one are you talking? You're talking 1002 Southeast 2nd Street? Yeah. Okay. Here's the who at one more why.

1002 Southeast 2nd Street is the address. 1002 Southeast 2nd Street by Iggs Park. Asking price, $520,000. Two bedroom, one bath, 1,100 square feet. Asking price, $520,000. This home sold in June 2023 for $290,000. They did minimal work, and they're going from $290,000 June 2023 last year to $520,000 this year. That's a hell of a lot of capital gains exposure. Anyway, $290,000 versus $520,000, make it make sense. I'm putting the pictures on. Oh, he's got the pictures on screen.

You going to make this make sense for me? Any viewer and listener, can you make this make sense? You can find it online by typing 1002 Southeast 2nd Street, Charlottesville, into your search engine of choice. I suggest you use the realtor website or app to get intel on the property. This is 1,100 square feet. It's two bedrooms's one bath. The lot is a postage stamp. I would not say, and I'm not trying to throw shade on this listing in any capacity, but I would not say that this is going to win any awards in Southern living. Would you? It's a quaint little place, but no. No one's going to put it in a magazine.

What? How is this? Now, anyone can ask for anything. It's been on the market for five days. It was built in 1946. That makes this home, quick math, 74, 78 years old. The price per square foot is a whopping $473 a foot. Are you going to help me understand this? I don't know if I can do that.

I mean, it's the American way, right? Flip a house and double your money. It sold in January of 2014 for $1.90. January of 2014, $190,000. The location is pretty fantastic. You've got to give them that, right? Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you're stumbling from the park in three notch.

You have like six or seven Minutemen on $3 Minutemen Mondays, you're fine. Don't need to. You can barrel roll your body to your house. We've all done that, haven't we? Take off with your kids' little Barbie car. Heather Lamont Walker is watching the program. Johnson Village's finest. Love when Heather watches the program.

Love her content. Sarah Hilbuchenski says there's an Exxon food market on Cherry, right? Yes, there absolutely is. Can anyone help me understand this listing on Ix Park at a $590,000 ask? Anyone? Deep throat, adding some color. RA and that lot is actually non-conforming under the zoning,

so you really can't do doo-doo here. And he didn't use the word doo-doo. Previously owned by the Kosners. Maybe they can take the house to their business. A wrecker's yard is where it belongs. Jeez Louise. That was his words. That was not mine. That was not my words.

Kosner family who watches this program. Don't tow us. That was not mine. Kevin Higgins says, it's got a split unit. Does it have central AC? He says, I can't help you make sense of this. Heather, can you help me make sense of this?

Sarah Hill Buchenski? Bill? Anyone? Anyone? Maria Marshall Barnes? Aaron King, we love you tremendously. Help us make sense of this. Vanessa Parkhill?

Anyone? Anyone? This caught my eye. Neil Williamson, More Housing Everywhere for Everyone. And he says if the community does not engage with the grocery store, it definitely will fail. Oh, 100%. 100%. I think the community just needs to be shown the way.

Because this isn't Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta. If you build it, they will come. This is not Shoeless Joe Jackson playing catch with his grandson with a catcher's mitt and a kid falling off the bleachers and a Chicago Black Sox player going from mythical 20-something years old to stepping over the foul ball line, becoming a doctor and performing the Heimlich on the kid who fell off the bleachers and saving his life. This is real life, people. If you build it, they don't come. And you want some examples of if you build it and they don't come? They're all over.

They are all over. Aldi. Aldi? Is Aldi still in business? No, it was Lidl. Lidl. Lidl? Aldi's still.

Fresh Market. Lidl? Lidl? Aldi's still open. I just drove by it the other day. Fresh Market. Lidl? Lidl? Aldi's still open. I just drove by it the other day. Fresh Market. Lidl. What are some other ones? There's plenty of them.

Alright, last item in the notebook. We've gone almost 70 minutes for your education, entertainment, and enlightenment. The last item on the notebook is the listing in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood yesterday. We mentioned that we said it was going to

sell right away. Well, it's under contract. Do you want to take the bet, Judah? I think you have a legitimate chance of winning this bet. Alright. No, you don't have to take the bet. I'm feeling bad. You don't have to take the bet if you don't want to. Let's take it. You don't have to take the bet. I'm feeling bad. You don't have to take the bet if you don't want to.

No, let's take it. You don't have to take the bet. I feel like I'm pressuring you here. Let's revisit the bet tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Nine units is the push. Anything above nine,

what you think is going to be more than nine units between now and the end of the year in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood come to market. I'm giving you one. So you already have one in your checkmark column. Yeah. So all you have to do is get nine more. And if you get eight more, push, then no one wins.

Sure, why not? Are we shaking hands on that? If you want to. We're going on a studio camera and shaking hands? I feel like I'm a scoundrel over here. Should I get a hand from the studio camera? I think so. No, here.

It's right there. Oh, right here? That's the camera? There we go. Alright. You guys heard the bat. It's the Tuesday edition of the I Love Seville show. We'll keep track of the bat here on the program.

Thank you kindly for watching the program. We appreciate you, the viewer and listener. Please share the gospel that is the I Love Seville show. And please support partners like Pro Renata and Mexicali Restaurant. Mexicali on West Main Street is some of the best Latin fusion and Southern California fusion food I have ever had. The food is off the hook. The food is amazing, folks. And the drinks are incredible. And if you want to see a restaurant with some of the most beautiful artwork you have ever seen, it's this one.

And the folks at Pro Renata are doing phenomenal things. They're converting the Crozet location into a sports bar. They're doing real estate development in downtown Stanton. They have a handful of music venues, and they're now brewing their beer in the Shenandoah Valley in the old Skipping Rock location. Dr. John Shabe and the Pro Renata team, I'll say it again,

John Shabe and the Pro Renata team are crushing it it's the tuesday edition of the show hasta luego Thank you.