2019 City of Charlottesville Office of Economic Development Annual Report-DEACTIVATED

2019 Annual Report

Cover Photos by Joe Rice. Page 2 graphic courtesy of CSH Development.

Director’s Message Dear Stakeholders, Welcome to another annual update from the Office of Economic Development.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. economy is now in its longest expansion in history—over ten years. Of course, predicting what is next for the world’s largest economy is anyone’s guess and is certainly beyond the abilities of this author; however, as an observer of our local economy for the past fifteen years, it is hard to image a more robust time. Consider that all the primary tax revenues that reflect economic activity continue to show net growth year-over-year. Also, unemployment is at an all-time low (2.0%), while the number of jobs in the City is at an all-time high (41,993) and average weekly wages have increased (2.5%). Furthermore, it was a record year for commercial investment with a total of $145 million dollars committed to a number of projects including over half a million square feet of new commercial office space.

While a vibrant economy is important, it does not signal prosperity by all, which speaks to the ongoing need for programs that empower people and businesses to reach their full potential. This year, we were proud to hire our first dedicated Minority Business Development Coordinator and formally launch our Minority Business Program. These tandem efforts will allow an intentional focus on helping grow a strong and diverse business community. Also, City Council dedicated $100,000 to seed a low interest loan fund for socially disadvantaged business owners growing their enterprises in the City. The Business Equity Fund has already assisted a dozen entrepreneurs with access to capital to grow their enterprise.

The city, county and university economic development arms spent considerable effort building our capacity for partnership and working collaboratively on several key projects.

These efforts included support of a dedicated defense and intelligence industry liaison, jointly marketing the new federal Opportunity Zones, and exploring ways to further accelerate business formation and growth in the community.

I hope you enjoy this recap of 2019, and we look forward to engaging with you in the future. As always, we thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Chris Engel Chris Engel Director, Office of Economic Development

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Capital Investment Building partnerships with private sector groups in order to maximize capital investment in the City

Office Boomtown In 2018, the City’s Economic Development Authority (CEDA) commissioned a comprehensive analysis of the commercial real estate market. Of note was an exceptionally low vacancy rate for office space—less than 1% in the downtown area. Fast forward 18 months and four major office developments totaling over 500,000 square feet of space are underway. These transformative projects, which include Dairy Central, 3Twenty3, CODE (pictured on previous page), and Apex Clean Energy headquarters (pictured above) will add ample new Class A inventory and overcome the dearth of development in this category over the past decade. These projects, and others throughout the city, helped fuel a record high of $145 million dollars for commercial permits in 2019. This total exceeds the previous high by $57 million dollars.

Also completed in 2019 was the Six Hundred West Main project, with 57 residential units, underground parking, and a restored Blue Moon Diner. The Quirk, a 75-room, art-inspired boutique hotel complete with restaurant and rooftop event space will be completed in early 2020.

“When the ice park became available for sale, we immediately saw a unique opportunity to create a building that upon completion would anchor and energize the west end of the Downtown Mall. The CODE project mission is to bring together the Charlottesville community by creating an ecosystem for multi-sector innovators. The variety of public common areas will create an environment where interaction between tenants, community members, and the wider Central Virginia community is intentionally promoted.”

- Andrew Boninti, President CSH Development

Match Maker In July, the OED with support from the Economic Development Authority, launched the creation of the Cville Match program.

The program seeks to advance commercialization efforts and grow local startups by providing matching funds to recipients of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), and Commonwealth Research and Commercialization Fund (CRCF) grants. Qualifying Citybased companies are eligible to receive a local match following federal/state approval of up to $25,000 to help facilitate growth. The program also now incorporates the VJIP Match, a long-standing program that provides matching funds to City business recipients of the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP).

Current City companies benefiting from the program include: Oesh, Cerillo, Lytos, Soundpipe, and Babylon Microfarms. Collectively, they expect to invest $17 million dollars and add 69 jobs across a range of skillsets with wages above the prevailing area wage over the next 2 years.

Capital Investment Commercial

Residential

427

$145M

1,636

# of commercial permits issued

$ value of investment

# of residential permits issued

$77M $ value of investment

Calendar Year 2019

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Business Development Creating an entrepreneurial environment where start-ups thrive & existing businesses have opportunity

Minority Business Program Launches In July, the Office of Economic Development took a major step to enhance its program offerings with the launch of the Minority Business Program. The mission of the program is to strengthen current programs, services, and offerings, and well as create new and innovative ideas to promote start-ups and expand existing minorityowned businesses in Charlottesville. This work is facilitated by Zoie Smith, Minority Business Development Coordinator, who joined the OED in July 2019. In September, the inaugural Minority Business Week was held in an effort to highlight the diversity of the business community. The week of festivities included: a Black Business Expo & Elevator Pitch Competition, Minority Business Appreciation Breakfast, Chamber Luncheon, Forward/ Adelanté Business Celebration, Minority & Women Business Expo, and a GO Connect event. With funding support from the City Council, the Business Equity Fund was also conceived and launched in 2019. This loan program was created specifically to provide access to capital for socially disadvantaged individuals. This unique program is administered through a partnership with the Community Investment Collaborative. To date, 10 of these loans totaling a little over $120,000 have been disbursed to minority-owned, City businesses.

"The Business Equity Fund has been a dream come true! I’m in a place now where I can grow my business. The timing of everything was perfect! I have the money to buy my supplies and industrial machinery. With this money, I am able to keep up with the demands of the community – a magical improvement! It was well worth it!”

-Lesly Goudet, LG’s Elixir’s

ACE Program The OED’s unique business assistance program, the Advancing Charlottesville Entrepreneurs (ACE) Program, has assisted more than 100 businesses over the course of the last six years. This competitive grant program was fully funded by the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority in 2019 and continued to award micro grants to eligible City businesses. These grants are used for advertising, equipment, and supplies; and the goal of the ACE program remains the same – helping City businesses increase revenue and capacity.

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BUSINESSES SERVED

GO Hire The City has targeted assisting City businesses with their workforce needs. The GO Hire program helps businesses looking to hire new staff with wage subsidies for City residents and also helps create and support training programs for incumbent employees. These training programs are industry specific and often identified by each business to help the company become more efficient.

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EMPLOYEES SERVED

"At North American Sake Brewery we need our staff to be highly trained in the culinary and fermentation arts and we rely heavily on experience, training, and skill to ensure the highest quality products possible. The GO Hire Program empowered us to train our staff in areas that have helped them grow deeper into their roles and create more value in our business. We now have a certified Cicerone who assists in brewing and fermentation and we were able to promote our Kitchen Manager with ServSafe certification."

-Andrew Centofante, Owner, North American Sake

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Workforce Development Fostering an environment that provides career ladder employment opportunities for Charlottesville citizens

Downtown Job Center In its 6th year of operation, the Downtown Job Center (DJC) has continued to raise the level of service delivery in career readiness and training and remains a conduit for connecting job seekers to employment opportunities. The DJC has established itself as the standard bearer for creating and revising resumes, assisting in preparing applications, mock interviewing, and other tasks to provide its clients with the best chance of obtaining and maintaining stable employment. The DJC also administers the GO Ride program, meeting client transportation needs through the interviewing and hiring phases in partnership with Charlottesville Area Transit.

Another focus for the Job Center is in organizing and executing the City’s GO programs, targeted skills training developed in concert with local employers offered to City and Albemarle County residents.

Graduates are subsequently hired by employer partners or similar enterprises more than 85% of the time. This past year saw an all-time high of eight GO programs offered in an array of fields including culinary arts, solar installation, CDL licensure, technical call center operation, and peer recovery support. All told, 50 participants graduated with industry certifications, armed to enter the workforce or advance existing careers.

There were also many new internal initiatives at the DJC in 2019. Staff welcomed aboard Rubina Catalano as Client Engagement Specialist, as Zoie Smith transitioned into her new role as Minority Business Development Coordinator. Rubina serves as the primary point of contact to new clients of the DJC and uses her photography skills to help document events and other happenings. The DJC also expanded its social media presence, becoming much more active in delivering our message on Facebook and Instagram. The Job Center Facebook account grew its followers by more than 13% over the year to more than 3,000, and the Instagram following has more than doubled.

The Job Center stepped into a new role in November, b eco m i ng t he base of operations for the City’s new Home to Hope program. As an integral part of the p r e- em pl o ym ent training for this program, the Job Center became a natural fit for four newly hired Peer Navigators to begin their service to justice-involved individuals. In particular, Home to Hope serves clients using authentic, lived experience to impact and inspire "time-served" individuals by introducing resources, providing peer support, and advocating for fairness, thereby advancing our community. The building of a new program is both a considerable responsibility and a tremendous opportunity to craft a mechanism of institutional change from the ground up. The Office of Economic Development is proud to consider ShadeÊ Gilliam, Ramanda Jackson, Whitmore Merrick, and Stacey Washington part of the family.

The Job Center is never content to rest on its laurels, however, and has already turned its attention to 2020 and continuing to innovate and raise the bar of workforce development. There will be new and different GO programs. There will be expanded marketing campaigns designed to reach as many people in need as possible. Staff will continue to cultivate and maintain prosperous relationships with other service providers and agencies in our community in an attempt to bring opportunity to the citizens of Charlottesville.

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GO Cook Through 2019, there have been 29 GO programs in various fields that have resulted in over 150 employment opportunities for area citizens.

The successful GO program model continued to evolve this year with a first time partnership with the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail (ACRJ), once again breaking new ground in delivering opportunity to job seekers.

GO Cook is a collaborative partnership between the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development and Chef Antwon Brinson’s Culinary Concepts AB. The program targets Charlottesville and area residents who meet eligibility requirements and have a passion for the culinary arts field. In addition to learning techniques and strategies for successful careers in restaurants and hospitality, GO Cook serves as a life skills class, training participants on soft skills required for long-term achievement in their personal and professional lives. Every graduate who has thus far completed the program has been offered stable employment in the culinary field, with opportunities for benefits, consistent hours, and the ability to support their families.

With the support of jail administration and program managers, Chef Brinson and Darrell Simpson, with the Downtown Job Center, screened incarcerated individuals and selected six women for the inaugural GO Cook at ACRJ. Class was held three evenings a week at the jail and involved classroom time devoted to life skills and hospitality training along with practical kitchen exercises. The five program graduates received their ServSafe food handling certification and a Certified Cook certificate from the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute.

The Downtown Job Center’s expanded relationship with ACRJ to bring employment services to soon to be released individuals is a big step in community service provision. This initiative embraces the desire of our City Council to be a “Second Chance City” in a concrete manner and represents a significant leap in offender reentry programming. The OED expects to return to the jail in 2020 for further programming that assists those in need of stable employment upon release.

GO Solar With demand for renewable energy options, a growing number of new firms focused on solar applications have launched or expanded in Charlottesville in recent years. Following an OED business visitation with Sun Tribe Solar, a clear need for growing and diversifying workforce was illuminated. The GO program model, used successfully to train hundreds of City residents over the years, was put to use to help Sun Tribe meet its hiring needs. OED staff designed a curriculum, recruited applicants, and managed the training process to ensure that the students were equipped with the tools needed to be successful on the job. Seven program participants received six weeks of photovoltaic installation training, workplace readiness, forklift and aerial lift training, OSHA 10 training, and CPR/First Aid training.

Following training, all graduates interviewed for open positions at Sun Tribe Solar, and six of the seven participants accepted employment with the company. Due to this success, the GO Solar program was recently featured in Energy News.

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Special Projects Working with internal and external partners on special projects that further the City’s economic goals

Center for Civic Innovation

OED staff have been privileged to serve on the Advisory Board that launched Charlottesville’s Center for Civic Innovation (CCI). CCI is a project of local non-profit, Smart Cville in partnership with the University of Virginia schools of Engineering, Architecture, Data Science and Continuing and Professional Studies; the City of Charlottesville; and Albemarle County. The regional civic innovation organization is helping citizens, local governments, and non-profits tackle some of our region’s biggest challenges. Using creative problem-solving methods, technology, and data, the CCI empowers citizens, UVA, and local governments to make our community a better place to live and work. The Center, which is located just off the Downtown Mall, was created to offer a research and development lab where all partners can connect, collaborate, and develop solutions that can scale and deliver real impact.

“Beginning with the Center for Civic Innovation's launch in September, the OED has been a critical partner for us. Since then, OED personnel have presented on CCI panels, provided strategic guidance, and connected us to minority business owners. Since our priorities align so well, we feel fortunate to have developed this partnership.”

– Lucas Ames, Founder, SmartCville

Opportunity Zones Opportunity Zones were created through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to drive private investment into underdeveloped areas throughout urban and rural communities. These zones have created long term investment opportunities that will help low income areas spur economic development and job creation by providing tax benefits to investors.

The OED partnered with the Albemarle Office of Economic Development to promote the area’s opportunity zones. The Charlottesville area has a thriving economic environment that is anchored by the University of Virginia and the Medical Center. All four Opportunity Zones are located in the commercial core of the region and were intentionally designated to spur additional investment. All of these zones also contain current small area plans. The Cherry Avenue and Strategic Investment Area Opportunity Zones are located in the City of Charlottesville. The Old Lynchburg Road District and Rio District Opportunity Zones are located in the County of Albemarle.

GO Virginia Impacts GO Virginia is designed to encourage regional collaboration around efforts to encourage highwage job growth while expanding and diversifying the economy. Over $20 million dollars in state funding has been deployed across the commonwealth since the inception of the program in 2017.

In the Charlottesville region, Region 9, nine projects have been funded bringing, $2.4 million dollars in state funding to the area. The Charlottesville Economic Development Authority has provided local matching funds for three of those projects having specific impact on the City. These include CvilleBioHub and its follow-on Biotech Innovation Cluster, as well as the Catalyst Accelerator.

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Parking Management It was another active year for the City of Charlottesville’s public parking program.

After many years of service, the revenue control equipment in both the Water and “Politics is not worrying Market Street Garages was no longer this country one-tenth serviceable and needed replacement. In as much as where to early 2019, through a competitive bidding find a parking space.� process, the City purchased modern pay on foot systems to replace the aging -Will Rogers equipment. The new system is more reliable and provides the City much stronger revenue controls. It is a fully automated system that does not require cashiers. However, given the high levels of transient traffic and the fact that not all customers are comfortable with fully automated transactions, the City converted the former cashiers into garage ambassadors. The ambassadors now help customers with the automated parking system and provide directions to downtown attractions and events.

Overall, many customers are now experiencing faster garage exit times.

Also, over the course of the year, safety and security systems in both garages were upgraded. The entire security camera systems were replaced with higher resolution color cameras and some additional cameras were added. The City also improved the lighting with particular attention to the roof of Water Street Garage.

At the West 2nd Street surface lot, the coin operated, single space parking meters were removed in favor of two automated pay stations that accept both cash and credit. The lot operates on a pay-by-space system, and the need to place a receipt on the vehicle dashboard is eliminated. Parkmobile, a smart phone app based mobile payment system, is also now a payment option. Signage was updated, but the space designations remain the same with four designated ADA spaces and a mix of two and ten hour spaces.

Another “Smart City” innovation added in 2019 was the posting of real time parking availability information on the City’s parking information page and on the My C’ville app for both garages. This allows patrons quick access to the actual number of available spaces at each garage in real time. This advancement should help dispel the myth that parking is unavailable downtown.

In 2020, the City will continue to look for more opportunities to make public parking easier and more convenient for both visitors and City residents.

Photo courtesy of Bob Mical

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Chris Engel, CEcD Director

Hollie Lee Chief of Workforce Development Strategies

Jason Ness Business Development Manager

Zoie Smith Minority Business Development Coordinator

Rick Siebert Parking Manager

Trish Carpenter

ShadeĂŠ Gilliam

Administrative Assistant

Home to Hope Peer Navigator

Roy Fitch

Ramanda Jackson

Job Center Coordinator

Home to Hope Peer Navigator

Darrell Simpson

Whitmore Merrick

Job Center Coordinator

Home to Hope Peer Navigator

Rubina Catalano

Stacey Washington

Job Center Customer Service Representative

Home to Hope Peer Navigator