C-BIZ: Fall 2018

How much dough is your neighbor bringing home?

GreenBlue gets real A closer look at about recycling Virginia voting MOs

It’s all of our business.

FALL 2018

It's a Ten

Scout Guide founders on their winning formula

Will Richey's budding restaurant empire

THE

FUTURE OF

DOWNTOWN With the ice rink's redevelopment, shifting parking solutions and a new home for City Market underway, the next era of the mall may be coming into focus

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LOCUST GROVE TAVERN

Significant historic property originally built in 1812 and enlarged in 1857 which has had a magnificent renovation. The spacious and gracious rooms have many original architectural details. Conveniently located to Charlottesville, University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

MLS#579971 Charlotte Dammann 434.981.1250 or Steve McLean 434.981.1863

1930 THOMSON ROAD

One block to UVA, completely renovated, 4 bedroom, c. 1928 arts and crafts: modern kitchen, baths, hardwood floors throughout, 1 bedroomterrace apartment. MLS#566332 $1,195,000 Jim Faulconer 434.981.0076

BELLAIR

C. 1953 brick home, private 1± acre lot, 3 BR, 2 full BA, living room, kitchen, dining room, and hardwood floors. Convenient, close-in location minutes west of the City limits. MLS#566703 $799,000 Steve McLean 434.981.1863

ARCOURT

French-inspired, custom stone residence on 22 acres, with superb, quality construction and details. Three-stall stable; spacious carriage home; beautiful, private setting. MLS#572365 $2,490,000 Jim Faulconer 434.981.0076

TUCKAHOE FARM

Rivanna Reservoir! Long river frontage with private dock, 4,407 sq.ft. contemporary, pool, guest/ pool house, 18+ acres, 10 minutes to Charlottesville. MLS#574939 $2,195,000 Steve McLean, 434.981.1863

WALNUT HILLS

HISTORICAL, Georgian Revival mansion, built c.1882 by Gov. James Kemper. 6000 sq.ft. manor home w/373 splendid acres. Long frontage on Rapidan River. $4,500,000 MLS#574009 Will Faulconer 434.987.9455

FOX RIDGE

Expansive views of nearby lake & Southwest Mountains from this 5 bedroom brick residence in the heart of Keswick on 21 acres.

MLS#572756 $995,000 Charlotte Dammann 434.981.1250

LAFAYETTE

105 TERRELL ROAD E

Just 5-minutes to both Barracks and Stonefield shops and close access to University of Virginia.

Classic brick home with 3,670 finished square feet, 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. MLS#578562 $649,000. Mark Mascotte 434.825.8610

THE HOME TRACT

c. 1804, located in the very heart of Ivy, 5 miles west of UVA. On both the Virginia and National Historic Registers. Brick and frame 3-4 bedroom residence on 3.2 private acres.

MLS#576114 Tim Michel 434.960.1124

Tucked in a quiet and peaceful setting down a delightfully treelined lane is this attractive, three story clapboard house. First floor master suite, five additional bedrooms, house, built in 2000, can easily handle large gatherings or simply a few by one of six fireplaces. All on 91 gently rolling acres, great views and stream.

MLS#574119 $2,395,000 Steve McLean, 434.981.1863

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C-BIZ 5

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6 C-BIZ

FALL 2018

22 15 25 27 29 17 19 35 21 21

The three Rs, with the help of GreenBlue.

Virginia advantages for college-saving: 101.

IN THIS ISSUE...

THE PITCH

13

The founders of The Scout Guide on quick success.

42

The future of downtown

Decisions being made right now about developing downtown may shape the heart of our city forever. This issue explores the neighborhood’s past, present and future, including what’s holding it back and how we can learn from earlier lessons.

Plus: Charlottesville’s harried parking history. ■ A solar boon for downtown development. ■ Zoning attorney Valerie Long lends insight.

Cover photo by Jack Looney

308 E. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 817-2749 ■ c-ville.com c-ville.com/cbiz

What the IRC can do for your business.

How to buy a restaurant (or why not to?).

Keeping a preschool co-op running.

Pre-election, a closer look at local voting.

How much are your neighbors making?

Dress code woes? An executive coach answers.

ExploreLearning’s new tools.

Top Ten

Rev Soup, The Whiskey Jar, The Bebedero, Commonwealth, Brasserie: What’s next for Will Richey’s Ten Course Hospitality?

58 BACKSTORY

Monticello Dairy: 1912.

C-BIZ, a supplement to C-VILLE Weekly, is distributed all over Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the Shenandoah Valley. C-BIZ Editor Caitlin White. C-BIZ Consulting Editor Sierra Bellows. Contributors Samantha Baars, Rachel Brozenske, John Feminella, Shea Gibbs, Erika Howsare, Lisa Martin, David Posner.

Copy Editor Susan Sorensen. Creative Director Bill LeSueur. Graphic Designers Tracy Federico, Max March, Lorena Perez. Advertising Director Erica Gentile. Account Executives Spencer Dole, Theressa Leak, Alex Patterson, Kyle Robinson, Cindy Simmons, Beth Wood. Production Coordinator Faith Gibson. Publisher Aimee Atteberry. Chief Financial Officer Debbie Miller. Marketing Manager Anna Harrison. A/R Specialist Nanci Winter. Circulation Manager Billy Dempsey. ©2018 C-VILLE Weekly.

C-BIZ 7

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8 C-BIZ

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Get Screened: No Butts About It! Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer

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Guideposts The Scout Guide’s founders reflect on their rapid rise

Christy Ford and Susie Matheson founded The Scout Guide in 2010 after positive response to Matheson’s buy-local blog.

SANJAY SUCHAK

By Erika Howsare

W

hen Susie Matheson and Christy Ford launched the 10th edition of The Scout Guide Charlottesville this July, they did so as the leaders of a company that’s grown, in about a decade, from a simple blog to a small publishing empire with 23 local employees and 60 franchisees around the country. The Scout Guide is a printed adbook for high-end shopping and services, but

originally it was a blog that Matheson wrote to highlight her favorite small local businesses.

After she recruited Ford—a photographer and co-owner of And George—to help produce the first print guide, the two began hearing from people in other cities who wanted to create their own Scout Guides. Now there are versions, each with its own local editor, in cities from Dallas to Cincinnati. Franchisees pay a $50,000 fee, take charge of photography and get their free guides

designed and produced by the team at Charlottesville headquarters. We sat down with Ford and Matheson to find out more about their journey.

C-BIZ: When you started the blog, were you thinking there would be eventually be a print product?

Susie Matheson: No, it was a labor of love. It wasn’t a business. I was in Scarpa one day and a C O NTINU ED O N PAG E 1 5

C-BIZ 13

Feel Pulled In Different Directions?

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14 C-BIZ

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C ONTI NUED F R OM PAGE 13

woman was trying on a pair of shoes, but she said she was going to buy them on Zappos.

I thought, what is going to happen when these local businesses are gone? I don’t think they’re good at promoting themselves.

So I started the blog, and after a while people started asking for ads. Christy and I came up with a way to put small business owners on a pedestal—to capture their face and not their logo. When we did the first book, we didn’t think about a franchise plan.

Christy Ford: We knew we could make a beautiful book, but we didn’t know beyond that.

What was the moment when you knew you had a winning formula?

CF: When people would call And George and say, “I brought the book home to Houston, and I need a wedding gift sent to New York.” They were using it to shop from afar.

And then people would grab the book [from the store] and say, “We need one of these.

How do we get one?”

SM: For me it was when I went home and said, “People are writing us checks!” We said yes to everybody at first.

What’s the most important piece of advice you give your editors?

CF: It’s so important that you’re living the life already. Our editors don’t walk in as Suzy Salesgirl; they’ve used this business before.

SM: We say you’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. We’ll take care of you.

It’s been great for women—they want to go back into the work force after having kids, and they need flexibility. There are some women who become editors just after finishing school and others who are empty-nesters. We do these editor conferences and bring everybody together. They are a strong community in themselves.

CF: Our mission is the same, supporting small businesses, but our passion has become supporting women.

College prep How to save for secondary education

By David Posner he words “back to school” don’t mean the same thing for everyone—it’s not all sharpened pencils and shiny red apples for the teacher. For many, it means scraping together tuition for college. But, school is a time for personal development (and not financial anxiety), which is where Virginia’s 529 plan comes into play.

Named after section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, the 529 Savings Plan is designed to help families save for future educational expenses. They can be used to help pay for qualified educational expenses in any state and even at a large number of foreign schools. In Virginia, the two most popular options are: the direct-sold Invest529 and the advisor-sold College America. It is important to note that these are just two options out of many, and they might not be the best for everyone.

The first thing to understand about a 529 plan is that, if used properly, it offers substantial tax advantages. Every state’s 529 offers tax-free investment growth and tax-free distributions, as long as the money is spent on qualified educational expenses. For tax purposes, a contribution to a 529 is seen as a gift, and as such, it is currently capped at $15,000 per person, per year for 2018, before eating into an individual’s lifetime exclusion. However, there is a firsttime catchup allowed, equal to an additional five years’ worth of gifts. In other words, an individual can contribute a one-time maximum of $75,000 in 2018 to carry forward for five years.

Virginia residents get the added bonus of a $4,000 unlimited, carry-forward, annual state tax deduction. For example, if you funded a 529 with $40,000 today, you could deduct $4,000 per year from your Virginia state taxes for the next 10 years. Those age 70 and

FILE PHOTO

T Learn local Money Magazine recently ranked the University of Virginia 10th in its annual “Best Colleges For Your Money” list.

How did the first franchise come about?

SM: Everyone who approached us had touched Charlottesville somehow—they had a student here, or they were visiting and picked up TSG Charlottesville.

CF: Charleston was the first licensing agreement; I had a high school friend there who had done advertising in New York, and she did a beautiful book. Then people wanted to do it elsewhere.

SM: Our lawyers advised us to become a franchise and protect the investment. How ironic, right? We’re the anti-franchise. But it made sense for our structure. We didn’t want to go to, say, Sarasota and hire a sales force; we wanted someone local. So we’ve loved franchising.

The Pitch > Finance

over have the added benefit of being able to deduct the entire amount contributed to a Virginia529 account in a year.

Let’s say that the account is worth $80,000 in 18 years. As long as the money is spent on qualified educational expenses, there would be no taxes owed on the $40,000 of growth.

The last component of a 529 plan is the investment choices. Both the Invest529 and College America plans offer a wide array of well-diversified options.

College America is a partnership between the state of Virginia and investment company American Funds. An investor is limited to that fund family if they choose that plan. Invest529, on the other hand, utilizes several different fund families to create strategically allocated portfolios from which an investor can choose.

One more piece of advice: There are several ways for a person to support themselves in college. From loans to jobs, it can be done. There are no such support options for retirement, and Social Security is typically not enough for a person to live happily on. In other words, deciding where to allocate savings is a decision with long-lasting consequences.

David Posner is local investment executive specializing in utilizing socially responsible options for long-term financial goals.

EVERY STATE’S 529 OFFERS TAX-FREE INVESTMENT GROWTH AND TAX-FREE DISTRIBUTIONS, AS LONG AS THE MONEY IS SPENT ON QUALIFIED EDUCATIONAL EXPENSES. C-BIZ 15

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The Pitch > Structures

Flow of the co-op Chancellor Street Preschool is owned and run by parents

By Sierra Bellows

SUPPLIED PHOTO

A

t the Chancellor Street Preschool Co-operative, the business manager is a parent.

The person who refills the supplies and maintenance closet with soap and toilet paper is also a parent. Parents administrate admissions and provide diversity outreach. Parents set the tuition, design the schedule and make strategic decisions about the school’s future.

“Every job is filled by a parent of one of the 30 children who attends the school. We have only three paid staff members: the teachers,” says Heather Swindler, a teacher whose two children are alumni. “Every parent has two jobs. They serve as a teaching assistance in the classroom a day or two each month, and they do an administrative or practical job for the school.”

Since 1972, the school has operated as an incorporated co-operative. It has a board of directors headed by two parent co-chairs who are elected by fellow parents each spring. “The flavor of the school can really change from year to year depending on who the parents are. Each kid is here for just two or three years. Each group of parents bring their own expertise and knowledge with them,” says Swindler.

“Parents bring fresh ideas, while teachers have institutional memory,” Swindler adds. Indeed, the school has a very high retention rate for teachers.

“We’ve seen which ideas have worked out and which haven’t in the past. Yet I’m continually impressed by the innovative ideas that parents bring.”

For membership in the co-op, current families are given priority and then applications are considered in the order they are received, starting in October. The school has a nondiscriminatory policy and provides a few small scholarships based on financial need.

The curriculum of the school is play-based to encourage self-directed learning. The school rents its location in the education wing of St. Paul’s Memorial Church, but is unaffiliated with the church.

Tuition rates at the school are comparatively low. “Quality education is often expensive,” says Swindler. “Here parents don’t just contribute

At Chancellor Street Preschool, every job is filled by a parent of one of the school’s 30 students.

money, like they do in a regular private school, they also contribute their time, labor and expertise.” Swindler says that mothers and fathers are equally present at the school.

National data on how preschools and daycares spend their funding suggests that at an average childcare center serving preschool-aged children, 13 percent of funding is spent on classroom materials and food, 16 percent on administration costs, 14 percent on the preschool space and 56 percent on salaries and benefits for employees. A co-op distributes funding differently—and can charge less tuition—because of the labor of parents.

The one downside of the co-operative model is that not every parent has the capacity to contribute time and labor to a school, according to Swindler.

“Also, we are a half-day school, so we don’t meet

the needs of families with two parents who work full-time and don’t have any flexibility.”

On the flip side, Swindler says that parents who have decided to leave the workforce or work less while their children are young often benefit a lot from the community of the school. “If you are someone who had a high-powered job and you find yourself listening to baby talk all day and telling your child where not to put their fingers, the school is an opportunity to use your job skills again and connect with adults around an intellectual challenge,” she says.

Both parents and children benefit from having parents in the classroom. “As a parent, I got to see how my kids were at school,” says Swindler. “How they played with other kids. How they dealt with new tasks and challenges. It was a gift to be able to know the at-school version of my kids.”

“QUALITY EDUCATION IS OFTEN EXPENSIVE. HERE PARENTS DON’T JUST CONTRIBUTE MONEY, THEY ALSO CONTRIBUTE THEIR TIME, LABOR, AND EXPERTISE.” HEATHER SWINDLER C-BIZ 17

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PERSONALIZED SERVICE. PROVEN RESULTS. 18 C-BIZ

The Pitch > Income

On the Map 743

£ ¤

Real £ estate prices and income in Charlottesville neighborhoods ¤ 4

Tra il

65

Se mi no le

How much do homes cost in your neighborhood? How much money do your neighbors make?

We’re all casually curious about B the folks next door. Butarrparts of ac ks Rd Charlottesville reveal serious . disjuncture between the ratio (%) of residents’ median income and £ ¤ (COH). £ ¤ their cost of housing Here’s a closer look.

41%

32%

6

£ ¤

COH: $289,800

65

32%

250

£ ¤ 15% 29

COH: $389,300

MHV: $235,400

£ ¤ 631

21%

29

MHV: $366,000

£ ¤

MHV: $65,000

250

13%

£ ¤

29%

MHV: $751,200

60

Ivy BUS Rd.

MHV: $332,100

10%

£ ¤ 250

MHV: $278,800

27%

26%

15%

MHV: $254,000

14%

250

MHV: $268,600

26%

MHV: $331,700

MHV: $173,700

26%

5%

MHV: $181,900

MHV: $291,100

22%

10%

782

£ ¤

MHV: $354,400

MHV: $141,900

36%

MHV: $180,400

£ ¤ 250

29%

12%

MHV: $253,900

MHV: $214,800

9%

24%

MHV: $368,100

MHV: $321,800

25%

26%

28%

MHV: $260,300

MHV: $309,800

34%

21%

MHV: $270,500 MHV: $161,100

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MHV: $93,200

17%

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MHV: $290,000

MHV: $229,000

19%

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780

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MHV: $225,900

MHV: $198,700

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Monticello

SOURCE: CITY-DATA.COM (2016)

C-BIZ 19

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Question: How should I set an effective dress code?

SANJAY SUCHAK

According to Rachel Brozenske (pictured below), vice president at Allison Partners, there is no one “right” policy for every business. It’s logical for a retailer to have a different dress code than a construction company, and even within the same sector, differences in culture, values and operating model can result in dramatically different expectations.

First, be clear about your purpose. If your concern is safety, then your policy might be about sturdy footwear that protects toes and heels, but if your concern is the atmosphere you create for customers, your policy might include attire that demonstrates professionalism.

Consider the exceptions. Are you able to explain and adhere to the policy with high-performing employees and those who struggle? If not, you may want to adjust your policy to apply consistently to everyone, or specify the conditions under which the policy would apply.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Share and document your expectations, whether that’s a manual, an email or an all-hands meeting. Providing context and rationale helps employees understand the change and make sound decisions.

Know that policies aren’t a panacea.

Don’t expect your policies to manage for you. People will have questions or want exceptions or simply not comply. Take a breath, consider your purpose and have the conversation.

The Pitch > Learning

Passing the test Educational company bets on tech, wins big

SUPPLIED PHOTO

The Pitch > Coaching

Gizmo, an online learning tool that helps students read bar graphs, is just one of ExploreLearning’s programs.

By Erika Howsare

H

ow do you get kids to learn math and science? It’s a question that has vexed many a teacher, but Charlottesville-based ExploreLearning has some pretty good answers. Founded in 1999 by UVA math Ph.D. David Shuster, the company develops online learning tools that are now used around the country. The key, says EL’s Tammy Weisman, is to focus on the concepts that give kids the most trouble, and to teach them through visualizations and games. Gizmos and Reflex, the company’s two current products, are meant to offer livelier lessons than your average textbook.

One Gizmo, for example, is a game whose object is to click on a moving target. The larger goal, though, is to help students learn how to read bar graphs, with their own reaction times being what’s graphed.

Such online tools have proved popular with schools, and for EL that’s paid off with consistent double-digit growth.

ExploreLearning is today a $30 million company, and was acquired in 2005 by what’s now called Cambium Learning Group. However, it’s still based near the Downtown Mall and employs close to 100 people locally (many of them software engineers and former teachers), with around 40 more employees around the country who sell the products and

train schoolteachers in their use. Three of these “professional development” specialists are full-time in the Miami-Dade (Florida) school district alone.

Weisman says focusing solely on tech solutions from the time of the company’s founding—rather than seeing online learning as a supplement to textbooks and workbooks—has helped EL succeed in a challenging sector. “Our company has benefited from how digital content [has become] something that every child can be doing at their own computer,” she says. “We developed with the intention that this stuff always existed online, and it was highly interactive and visual. It could change and adapt to what kids are doing.”

For example, algorithms built into the products learn what math facts a user needs to learn, then focus the simulation or game on those facts until the student catches on. ExploreLearning’s new product, Frax, will take kids on a space adventure which, along the way, boosts their understanding of fractions—a major stumbling block for many kids. Frax is currently being tested in Albemarle County schools and will come out next year.

“We really do go deep into the content,” says Weisman. “We’re not a box of everything; we’re a collection of stuff that is really focused on the areas that kids struggle with the most in math and science.”

C-BIZ 21

The Pitch > Business tools

Tools for sustainability

GreenBlue programs make businesses more environmentally friendly

G

reater productivity is good for business.

What if the materials that comprised your products could be used—and reused—more productively over their entire life cycles? No matter what your business makes, you have potential to get more value out of your materials.

Charlottesville-based nonprofit GreenBlue can help. Its mission is to foster “a resilient system of commerce based on the principles of sustainable materials management.” Sustainable materials management is a new way of thinking about how society uses resources and provides new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve natural resources and reduce costs.

At GreenBlue, Charlotte Dreizen manages the Composting Collaborative, which brings together businesses, composters and policymakers to generate solutions to composting challenges.

Kelly Cramer manages How2Recycle, the first and only comprehensive recycling labeling system for packaging in the U.S. C-BIZ spoke with Dreizen and Cramer about how local businesses could benefit from their programs.

Composting Collaborative

What does it do?

Charlotte Dreizen: It unites composters, consumer-facing businesses and policymakers to share best practices, resources and generate innovative solutions to shared challenges. It’s a great opportunity for Charlottesville businesses to plug into the national conversation around food waste and composting.

Who is it for?

Businesses that handle large amounts of compostable material—food, yard trimmings, paper and compostable packaging, for example— would likely benefit the most, whether a fine dining establishment, grocery store, coffee

22 C-BIZ

shop, catering businesses or a manufacturer of food products.

But almost all businesses have food or other compostable materials. Office buildings have left over food waste from employees’ lunches, as do event spaces, construction sites, university campuses, airports, public parks and most other public and private spaces.

For small businesses in a dense area, such as Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, one has the opportunity to partner with neighboring businesses to share a composting bin if one generates less material than what may warrant individual pick-up.

Who’s doing it already?

Our 57 current members represent a range of stakeholders, from small, local Virginia nonprofits to companies with national operations, city and state agencies across the county, and small and large-scale composters.

Woodard Properties in Charlottesville composts at their office. Roots Natural Kitchen diverts pre-consumer kitchen waste to animal feed at local farms. And, of course, all Charlottesville residents are able to drop-off their own food waste at the City Market and at McIntire Recycling Center.

How2Recycle

What does it do?

Kelly Cramer: The How2Recycle label is an on-package, standardized recycling label that can be applied to any product or any packaging material. It tells people exactly how to recycle all parts of the packaging.

Consumer feedback tells us that the How2Recycle label is changing people’s recycling behavior, and refining their recycling knowledge. Our data suggests that 85 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product that features a recycling label. Companies can demonstrate their commitment to environmental sustainability with a How2Recycle label.

EZE AMOS

By Sierra Bellows

SUPPLIED PHOTOS

“85 PERCENT OF CONSUMERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY A PRODUCT THAT FEATURES A RECYCLING LABEL.” KELLY CRAMER

Charlotte Dreizen and Kelly Cramer manage Composting Collaborative and How2Recycle respectively, two programs aimed at helping businesses get more out of their materials.

Who is it for?

If you are headquartered in Charlottesville—for example a brewery, or a gym with your own branded bottled water—get in touch with us!

We’ll analyze your packaging and determine the right recycling label for your product. Other good fits include vineyards, juice and snack companies, co-ops, bakeries, local restaurants with their own branded packaging, or shops with their own branded paper or plastic bags.

Any company with consumer-facing packaging is eligible to join How2Recycle. For an annual fee, companies receive custom recyclability assessments for their packaging, recommendations for

how to make packaging more recyclable (if appropriate) and How2Recycle labels for an unlimited number and variety of packages.

We can give small, local businesses a discounted rate. We want to support local business to build the How2Recycle movement in our home community.

Who’s doing it already?

The program has about 100 corporate members that represent more than 700 brands, including Amazon, Target, Nestle, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hasbro, the Kellogg Company, Walmart, Unilever, Clorox, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, SC Johnson and Walgreens.

C-BIZ 23

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The Pitch > Labor

Global workers, local business With help from the IRC, local companies hire refugees

By Sierra Bellows

EZE AMOS

R

efugees flee violence and persecution to rebuild their lives—and careers—in new places, and over the years, the Charlottesville area has been the initial home for more than 3,500 refugees from 32 countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps them integrate into the workforce by partnering with local businesses.

Design Electric, a 250-person company that builds commercial, residential and industrial electric systems, and the Omni Charlottesville Hotel both have long histories with the IRC. Casey Carwile, personnel director at Design Electric, says that workers who were recent refugees in 2000 still work at the firm and most work as electricians or electrician helpers. “There are inspirational stories,” says Carwile. “Two brothers from Russia came to work for us and both finished the entire electrician apprenticeship program in four years. Now they are lead men on a $14 million project at the university.” Recently, a third brother has come to Charlottesville and joined Design Electric as a pre-apprentice.

Carwile says the decision to hire refugees is a practical one. “We need to get our work done, so we need qualified, hard-working people. People from different countries and different backgrounds, we all work together.” Carwile says Design Electric has hired about 30 people through the IRC. Language can be a barrier to employment and education for recent refugees, and Design Electric works with the IRC to provide language classes with an emphasis on the English required for electrician training.

Patti Shifflette, human resources director with the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, says that in the last 20 years, the Omni has hired hundreds of refugees. The practice has helped the hotel maintain staffing levels in a city with very low unemployment. But Shifflette feels the greatest benefit has been the creation of a diverse workforce. “Diversity is a strength that positively impacts our culture in the workplace and brings a high level of respect amongst all

In the last 20 years, the Omni Charlottesville Hotel has hired hundreds of refugees, such as Paw Zaw, Waseem Nasir, Liqaa Al Behadili and Joseph Sesay, who currently serve in areas of housekeeping, food and beverage and guest services.

members of our staff. Our guests appreciate being able to meet and converse with staff who come from all areas of the world,” says Shifflette.

“Refugees bring with them a strong desire to work and make a new home for their families, which brings to Omni a strong work-ethic and desire to succeed.”

Newly hired refugees tend to have entry-level positions, and the hotel often pairs a new refugee with another employee who speaks the same language. Initial job training is designed to be accessible even for those who do not have strong English language skills. As an employee’s language skills improve, she has the opportunity to move into positions suited to her individual strengths and skills that “offer higher compensation and growth potential,” says Shifflette.

To some extent, economic growth relies on population growth and the related increase in labor.

Refugees and immigrants contribute significantly to the American economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, first-generation immigrants are 13 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise 16 percent of the labor force and 18 percent of small business owners. Refugees and immigrants also bring diverse skills that help businesses gain flexibility in a fast-changing global economy.

The benefits of working alongside refugees can also be more personal. “When one of our refugee employees becomes a U.S. citizen, it’s one of the proudest moments, and that feeling of pride and excitement spreads throughout the hotel,” says Shifflette. “Being born and raised in the U.S., it has made me realize what many of us take for granted.”

“WE NEED TO GET OUR WORK DONE, SO WE NEED QUALIFIED, HARD-WORKING PEOPLE. PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS, WE ALL WORK TOGETHER.” CASEY CARWILE Did you know? The IRC is the American branch of the International Relief Association, which was founded

by Albert Einstein in 1933 to help those fleeing Nazi Germany. Einstein himself was a refugee.

C-BIZ 25

SANJAY SUCHAK

The Pitch > Real estate

The Salad Maker owner Jacie Dunkle, who also owns Tin Whistle and formerly Fellini’s #9, says owning a restaurant is all-consuming. “You cannot expect that you won’t work in that restaurant all the time,” she says.

Food for thought What should you know when you buy or sell a restaurant?

By Erika Howsare

I

n a town with 400 restaurants, one might be forgiven the occasional restaurant-ownership fantasy. And some of us actually take the plunge, becoming the lucky owners of diners, Chinese takeout joints or high-end date spots. But what do you actually get when you buy a restaurant?

That depends. Primarily, says business broker Stu Rifkin, “You’re buying the right to do business at that location.” In most cases, you’ll be taking over or renegotiating a lease, and that means you should look for a good landlord and location, just as you would when renting an apartment.

Jacie Dunkle, longtime former owner of Fellini’s #9 and current owner of Tin Whistle and The Salad Maker, says the lease must give you enough time to recoup what you’re spending on the business. “At Tin Whistle, when I took over the lease, there were three years left on the original lease with an option for five

more,” she explains, “so I have eight years to recoup my money. Hopefully I’ll do well enough to ask the landlord for an additional five years.”

In some cases, buying a restaurant also means buying everything inside it—furniture, glassware, equipment, the works.

These may or may not feel like what they’re called: assets. When Dunkle paid $90,000 for what had been Café Bocce, she inherited all its assets “whether I wanted them or not,” she says. “It was an Italian restaurant and I had to pull everything out to make it an Irish pub.”

Rifkin says buyers sometimes also inherit issues with the health department, as he did when he bought The Nook in 2006 (for, he says, “over $150,000”). If health inspectors had grandfathered certain violations with a previous owner, they’ll see the sale as a chance to require upgrades. Rifkin and his partners found themselves required to add four sinks to the kitchen to bring it up to par. You’ll also need additional funds, above and beyond the cost of the sale itself, for a business license, legal advice, and other costs.

From the seller’s perspective, says Dunkle, it’s important to make sure your buyer has some assets to serve as collateral in case she doesn’t end up paying her rent. Dunkle sold Fellini’s in 2015 to a buyer who only lasted a year in the space.

“I still was the personal guarantee on the lease,” says Dunkle.

“She had no assets, so when she stopped paying rent I was personally responsible.

I had to take the restaurant back and pay back the rent she hadn’t paid.” Dunkle sold again in 2017 to Fellini’s chef Chris Humphrey.

Dunkle says that spending money on a good logo and plenty of advertising at the beginning can be important—especially when trying to overcome a so-called cursed location (as she did at Tin Whistle) or a location that wasn’t previously a restaurant (like the Salad Maker, which used to be a clothing store).

Maybe the most important thing to know as a buyer is that your new business will require a serious investment of time.

“You cannot expect you won’t work in that restaurant all the time,” says Dunkle, who estimates she put in 60-65 hours a week at Fellini’s. But she adds, “As many hours as I’ve worked, I’ve never regretted my decision. I’ve had the most fun, met the greatest people, enjoyed every minute of my misery.”

C-BIZ 27

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The Pitch > Ask a technologist

Paper pushing What happened to voting machines in Virginia?

By John Feminella

FILE PHOTO

O

ver the course of the 2016 presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump asserted the election was going to be “rigged” by unspecified actors. No evidence was ever offered to support that claim, and his concerns about election integrity curiously seem to have evaporated on November 9. But the uncertainty and doubt generated by those statements, and the repeated and ongoing attempts by the Russian government to interfere in U.S. elections, have made some folks take a closer look at how we secure our vote.

In Virginia, the ground game for election security is run by a dizzying array of more than 100 local registrars across the state, one for each city and county. Rosanna Bencoach, the general registrar for Charlottesville, brings more than a decade of experience with election policy and work on electoral boards to bear, and describes her job as “ensuring that everyone who wants to vote can do so.”

That might be something of an understatement.

Bencoach is responsible at the local level for ensuring free and fair elections, every single time.

In practice, that means that for each election, hundreds of officials, staff and volunteers need to be carefully choreographed and mobilized to the right places so that voters can participate. The anonymous ballots used in the election are printed and shipped to secure locations, and afterwards they’re sealed and stored for at least one year to preserve a paper record in case there’s any dispute about the vote.

But as experienced as local registrars might be, they ultimately rely on state and federal government agencies to certify which machines are meeting security standards. How secure are the machines that manufacturers are making?

The answer: not very. The software the manufacturers use to power the digital systems that record votes is closed-source; it can’t be inspected for problems by experts among the general public. Without this check, it’s difficult or impossible to detect certain categories of vulnerabilities in the software. Even the physical mecha-

nisms used to prevent direct access to the machines can frequently be bypassed or otherwise disabled without detection.

Despite assurances to the contrary, manufacturers have repeatedly failed in real-world tests when experts take a run at the machines. Last year at DEF CON, an international security and hacking conference, every single voting machine on display was hacked in less than two hours. Even security professionals who had never worked with voting machine technology before were able breach them. Some of these breaches were done wirelessly, on machines that were never supposed to have wireless access turned on.

Luckily, state electoral boards understood the threat. Citing the DEF CON demonstrations, Virginia decertified the worst offenders in 2017.

Today, every voting precinct in Virginia uses paper ballots. Sometimes, the best technologies are the most reliable ones.

Of course, voting machines might not even need to be hacked at all to sway an election. Malicious foreign actors don’t have any need to tamper with an election when they can influence the minds of voters directly with an insidious patchwork of false advertising, misinformation and conspiracy theories carefully targeted to prey on the fears of citizens.

And there are certainly differing views about how zealous we should be in pursuing election security. In July, the GOP attempted to defund the Election Assistance Commission, the federal body that certifies voting machines and advises state agencies about how to conduct elections securely. But securing technology is always a moving target, and the work is never done. If citizens want security to be a legislative priority, there’s much more work to do.

John Feminella is the co-founder of analytics startup UpHex and an adviser at Pivotal. He lives in Charlottesville and enjoys solving difficult technology problems.

IN VIRGINIA, THE GROUND GAME FOR ELECTION SECURITY IS RUN BY A DIZZYING ARRAY OF MORE THAN 100 LOCAL REGISTRARS ACROSS THE STATE, ONE FOR EACH CITY AND COUNTY. C-BIZ 29

A Charlottesville job with a world of possibilities.

Of course you can move to NYC, or L.A., or Chicago…

Or you can stay right here in Charlottesville and work in a place with a view and a really contemporary viewpoint. We’re WorldStrides, and we’ve been at home here for fifty years. In fact, today we’re 500 employees strong! This is where great work is done and friends are made. This is where careers take flight—right from the Downtown Mall. worldstrides.com/careers

NS 3.625X4.75 CVILLE BIZ AD FALL2018 final.qxp_2018 8/14/18 10:06 AM Page

City of Charlottesville The City of Charlottesville is accepting applications for full-time and temporary positions.

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Be part of our team and make a difference in the community!

To view current opportunities and to apply, visit:

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Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. The City conducts pre-employment drug testing for all positions. Final applicants required to register with Selective Service must show proof of registration. You will be asked to provide personal identity and eligibility for work in the U.S. in accordance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

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34 C-BIZ

Richey’s way

Restaurateur Will Richey’s Ten Course Hospitality has taken on a life of its own AMY JACKSON

By Shea Gibbs

C-BIZ 35

W

ill Richey didn’t set out to launch Charlottesville’s most influential restaurant group. But when he created Ten Course Hospitality, he did it anyway.

“Is it planned, or is it sort of organic?” Richey says. “I guess it is sort of an organic process. As we are going, we’re always tightening up ideas, trying to find the right opportunities.”

Richey, who today presides over a fluid empire of about a dozen restaurants and service organizations, got his start as a sommelier and front-of-thehouse guy, managing servers and caring for guests.

His local break came at L’étoile, the French stalwart that closed after 20 years in 2014. Richey ascended the ranks at L’étoile and along the way met Josh Zanoff, his fellow Ten Course founding partner.

Richey credits Zanoff for teaching him the back of the house part of the restaurant world—how to cook, create menus, dial in culinary concepts.

Richey and Zanoff started working together as caterers, but they wanted a restaurant of their own. The ideal concept? A French-style bistro.

The concept that landed in their proverbial bowls after they’d nearly given up hope and gone their separate ways? Revolutionary Soup.

36 C-BIZ

Richey’s ventures Wholly owned restaurants: The Bebedero Brasserie Saison Revolutionary Soup Downtown Revolutionary Soup the Corner The Whiskey Jar Support provided: The Alley Light Champion Brewing Company Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar The Pie Chest Other ventures: Red Row Farm The Wine Guild of Charlottesville

“Rev Soup isn’t what I set out to do,” Richey says. But it was a place he was familiar with—he’d previously worked there as a line cook—and when it came up for sale, it just made sense.

These days, Ten Course is consistently adding new restaurants and divesting of others. And while the opportunities themselves are organic, the fluidity is by design. Richey says he and his partners look to take on about one major project per year.

Expanding assets

When Ten Course began managing Draft Taproom and Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar last year, for example, the group set to work installing its service and kitchen management practices.

According to Richey, the owners of Draft brought Ten Course in to turn the business around before quickly selling it—meaning Richey’s team did its job in short order. At Commonwealth on the other hand, big changes are afoot, and Richey says Ten Course is only just getting started.

One of the big changes was bringing in chef Harrison Keevil, formerly of Brookville and currently of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, to

SANJAY SUCHAK

Will Richey spends most of his time at Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar and Brasserie Saison, the newest addition to Ten Course’s portfolio. “Not to pat myself on the back,” Richey says, “but I think it’s one of the finest restaurants in town.”

redirect the Commonwealth menu. Keevil, Richey says, is the ideal chef to shepherd Commonwealth into its own as a representation of modern Virginia cooking.

“One of the first things was a need for a tighter vision of what the restaurant was—it was all over the place with the cuisine,” Richey says. “With Brookville not being there, there was a need for a more upscale sort of Southern restaurant.”

Richey has brought yet another model to his management of The Alley Light and The Pie Chest. At both, he’s shifted into a slow buyout process with existing management. While Ten Course is technically no longer a direct owner of either business, the restaurants remain under the group’s umbrella, enjoying its service, management and marketing support.

Ten Course still directly owns and operates The Whiskey Jar, The Bebedero, both Rev Soup locations, Commonwealth and it’s newest addition, Brasserie Saison. Over the years, Richey has also founded the Charlottesville Wine Guild and Red Row Farm.

How does he manage it all? One way to think of Richey is as Charlottesville’s premier hospitality industry talent scout. Finding the best folks around town in individual niches and nurturing their abilities is critical to the Ten Course vision, according to director of wine and hospitality Will Curley.

“As we grow as a restaurant group, we try to identify our top people and find out what their goals are,” he says. “You might be a great server and want to move up, but you would have to leave your current restaurant to do that. We’re able to keep people in the family and leverage the larger talent pool.”

Getting it done

FILE PHOTO

Richey says responsibilities break down like this: Zanoff focuses on The Bebedero and The Whiskey

Josh Zanoff, Richey’s Ten Course founding partner, focuses on operations at The Bebedero and The Whiskey Jar.

SANJAY SUCHAK

RICHEY’S WAY

Ten Course’s director of wine and hospitality, Will Curley, says the restaurant group’s goal is to raise the standards of service in Charlottesville.

Jar, GM Lindsey Daniels handles Rev Soup and Richey himself spends most of his time at Commonwealth and Brasserie Saison.

“Not to pat myself on the back, but I think [Brasserie Saison] is one of the finest restaurants in town,” Richey says.

Joining on the launch of Brasserie Saison were career sommelier Curley and Hunter Smith, president of Champion Brewing Company. Richey “is a true collaborator,” Smith says. “He doesn’t have to be the guy on every project.”

Curley, who hails from Chicago, says he immediately hit it off with Richey after moving to Charlottesville less than two years ago. “The thing I am always most impressed with is how Will is able to marry his crazy passion for restaurants and hospitality with a good business sense,” he says.

Curley admits a concern with the growth of Ten Course is the dilution of the brand and lack of

attention to detail by upper management. But it’s a challenge he’s convinced the team is up to. “What it has allowed us to do is become even stronger with our internal systems,” he says. “Every project we take on, we learn. We cherry pick the best ideas and take them back to the rest of the group.”

Curley says Ten Course’s goal is to raise the standards of service in Charlottesville, and to that end, Richey says he sees the group focusing increasingly on its consulting arm. In other words, Ten Course will be looking for more opportunities like the ones at Draft and Commonwealth going forward.

But Richey hasn’t given up on his bread and butter: fresh restaurant concepts. Who knows— that French bistro he and Zanoff once dreamed of may even happen one day.

“We always have a cache of concepts,” Richey says.

“When you see the right space and opportunity, if you’ve built out the concept, you can pop it in.”

C-BIZ 37

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Blockparty Charlottesville’s downtown, long a subject of controversy, 42 C-BIZ

Brick by brick

is settling into its own

By Shea Gibbs

SKYCLAD AERIAL

y

harlottesville’s downtown has been a source of debate and controversy for nearly a century. Could the debate finally be coming to a close?

For the first time in a long while, some agreement has emerged about how to balance downtown development—residential versus commercial, shared versus dedicated space and parking in particular.

“The downtown area is a vital part of the economic engine of our city, and there is great demand to do business there,” says Bob Kahn of Bob Kahn Realty & Investment. “This is where folks want to live and work, and I think it’s important that we continue to nurture it in a positive way.”

Kahn served as the listing agent for the Main Street Arena, purchased by Brands Hatch LLC and Jaffray Woodriff, who did not respond to requests for an interview, for $5.7 million in 2017. The arena will be torn down to make way for a 170,000square-foot tech hub called the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs (formerly the Charlottesville Technology Center).

The center is one of several major transformations currently happening on and around the Downtown Mall, and together they stand to drive the future of one of C’ville’s most critical commercial areas.

It was a windy path for the Downtown Mall to get where it is today.

The story starts in the 1970s, when, as downtowns nationwide searched for ways to bring people back from the suburbs to do business in the city, pedestrian malls emerged as the answer. According to The Charlottesville Downtown Mall, a 2010 documentary by producer Karl Krause, more than 200 U.S. cities adopted the concept of the pedestrian mall around that time.

Unfortunately, only a handful were successful, and the numbers dwindled to about 30 by 2010. The staying power of the Charlottesville mall, according to Krause, was owed to a combination of a smallish, active population, and the nearby university.

The mall also in part owes its existence to one of the more controversial developments in Charlottesville’s history—Vinegar Hill. The largely black residential area, situated just west of what is now the Downtown Mall, was razed in 1958.

For a decade, it stood idle.

C-BIZ 43

In the zone Valerie Long helps shape the city’s landscape

C-BIZ: What are some of the biggest challenges for developers in Downtown Charlottesville?

Valerie Long: I think probably the most challenging thing right now is that the process has become so contentious in many cases. So often developers are met with skepticism from the beginning. There are reasons for that, but I’ve been trying to figure out ways we can improve that process. It helps to work with residents near projects and trying to develop those relationships better and earlier in order to understand the perspective of residents who live and work near projects.

How does the need for affordable housing play into these issues?

Everybody shares the goal that we need substantially more affordable housing units in the City.

That often means that in order to make those financially viable, we need market rate units coming online at the same time. Sometimes that’s seen as counterproductive, so we’re trying to make folks understand they can be complementary.

Under the current zoning ordinance, the density limits are set relatively low in terms of what you can do by-right. The incentive is to obtain a special use permit (SUP), but now with

How do historic designations affect the process?

Much of Downtown is located within a historic district, so any time you have a project within that, it has to get design approval from the Board of Architectural Review (BAR). If you do need an SUP or rezoning, as part of that process, the BAR will have an initial hearing. That’s to provide guidance to the Planning Commission about whether the BAR thinks the request for an SUP is appropriate for that historic district. The application for an SUP goes through a two-step process: first the Planning Commission for a non-binding recommendation, and then it’s ultimately approved

by City Council. Landscape design is also within the BAR’s jurisdiction, as well as signage.

What changes have you seen in your career that are positive for the community?

In the last five years the city started requiring community meetings for SUPs and rezoning applications. It comes down to earlier communication and outreach. That’s always a positive. It’s an opportunity to explain to adjacent neighborhoods and community members the details of a proposed project. In the vast majority of cases, that results in a better project.

44 C-BIZ

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

Valerie Long

COURTESY RENDERING

A

s a longtime local real estate attorney, Valerie Long—who’s been in the business for nearly 20 years, and with the Williams Mullen firm since 2006—has represented developers of some of the biggest projects to reshape Charlottesville in recent memory, including Stonefield and Fifth Street Station. We asked her to share some of her expertise regarding development in the city’s Downtown.

the process being more expensive and time-consuming, it’s creating a disincentive. For the economics of a project to work, the incentive is to have fewer units at higher prices or rental rates. We’re advocating for higher density levels as an incentive to provide affordable and lower-cost housing. But people perceive higher density as a real negative—they start worrying about traffic and the impact on their neighborhood.

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

By Erika Howsare

Bob Kahn

What Vinegar Hill eventually became—a commercial strip and roadways—is still an emotionally charged subject for many, but its redevelopment went hand in hand with the launch of the mall in 1973.

The urban planning firm that recommended destroying the Vinegar Hill residences also originally conceived of a downtown pedestrian walk, according to the Magazine of Albemarle County History.

The mall, too, had its detractors at the beginning. Council members said Charlottesville wasn’t amenable to a “mall concept.” But a nar-

Into the future The mall’s original conception incorporated several spaces that never came to be, including an anchor farmer’s market on the east end.

That’s contributed to much of the

surrounding developments’ fluctuation over the years.

Now, residential spaces are in the works that should bring more housing to Charlottesville’s downtown— and with it residents with disposable income.

“This community needs residential development in the worst way possible,” says David Mitchell of Great Eastern Management Company, the developer working on creating up to 126 condos at East Jefferson Place (1011 E. Jefferson St.). “No one can say we don’t need more residential development.”

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

row vote pushed the redevelopment plan through, and a San Francisco design firm created a pedestrian thoroughfare that has more or less stood the test of time, both functionally and formally—a rebricking in 2009 brought the surface up to date along with the mall’s commercial opportunities.

ALBEMARLE CHARLOTTESVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The proposed Center of Developing Entrepreneurs (rendered above), a 170,000-square-foot tech hub that will replace the Main Street Arena, is at the center of several major transformations on the Downtown Mall.

At right, the heart of the city prior to its bricking, looking west toward the Vinegar Hill neighborhood.

David Mitchell

What type of residential development is more a subject of debate.

Mitchell calls East Jefferson “workforce housing” that “complements the neighborhood.” Across the mall on Water Street, a mixed-use property would add another 85 residential units, as well as a permanent home for the City Market.

The Water Street project, West2nd, has been in the works for several years, and construction is finally slated to begin this fall. “That is a prime example of how the city is well managing the growth of downtown,” Kahn says. “These things are compliC O NTINU ED O N PAG E 5 1

C-BIZ 45

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48 C-BIZ

FILE PHOTO

Tight fit Downtown parking vexes city Looking for a parking spot? You’re not alone. Parking has gotten tougher Downtown, and it will probably get tougher still. In the words of the city’s parking manager, Rick Siebert, “There is an impending and significant parking shortage” due to development projects still in the pipeline.

The last few years have been a stormy time for the city as it’s tried to address the parking problem. By Erika Howsare

Dave Norris, CPC manager and former mayor, tells C-VILLE that the settlement “is really a good thing for all parties,” even though he and other CPC administrators will lose their jobs. (Other garage employees expect to keep theirs.) Siebert believes efficiency will result: “We intend to operate Water Street exactly as we currently operate the Market Street garage,” he says. “If you’re coming to park, you can choose whichever facility is most convenient for your trip.”

So, once the change is in place later this year, patrons will pay $2 per hour (first hour free) at either existing garage. As for meters, Siebert says the City Council will “consider reconsidering” the idea early next year, with mid-2019 being the earliest possible point that meters could be reinstalled.

“The expected revenue from meters would help defray the cost of a new garage,” he says, adding that garage revenue already goes into a separate fund intended for that purpose.

Meters or no meters, the new garage will be built—though its size and design are yet to be determined. One reason is that the city and Albemarle County are negotiating over whether county courts will remain within the city; if they do, the county is asking for 100 dedicated parking spots to serve those courts. “If we supplied the county with 100 spots,” says Siebert, “it would limit public spaces.”

Traffic patterns are also a sticky issue. “East Market’s pretty busy,” Siebert says. “Where will those cars go after they exit?” He calls it a “very real possibility” that the existing lot in front of the S&P building could become part of the garage, too, though if the garage becomes too big, traffic problems will grow as well. Public preference for keeping Charlottesville’s skyline low is another limiting factor.

Bike racks, anyone?

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

Here’s a breakdown of recent events:

Rick Siebert

1986, 2000 and 2008: City commissions study of the parking situation downtown.

2015: A new study recommends establishing a city parking department, installing meters Downtown and setting garage rates lower than meter rates.

March 2016: Mark Brown, owner of Water Street Parking Garage and president of the Charlottesville Parking Center (CPC), sues the city over a dispute over rate increases on the 973 public spots in the garage. The city and the CPC, equally represented on the board that governs the garage, had deadlocked over whether rates could be raised to reflect market rates. This led to

Brown’s suit, which demanded $1 million in damages and the city’s removal from decisions on rate-setting.

April 2016: The city countersues.

September 2016: Rick Siebert is hired to oversee the city’s Parking Action Plan.

November 2016: The city announces it will pay $2.85 million to buy the lots on East Market Street currently occupied by Lucky 7 and Guadalajara, in order to build a new garage.

September 2017: Parking meter pilot program is launched with 105 spots around downtown. Parking at these meters costs $1.80 an hour. Simultaneously, garage

rates are lowered. The program earns $18,000 in its first month for the city’s parking enterprise fund. However, in an online city-conducted survey, 57 percent of respondents say the meters have caused them to avoid coming downtown.

January 2018: City Council votes to end parking meter pilot program about two months earlier than planned.

July 2018: The city and the CPC finally reach a settlement under which the city will have full control over Water Street operations. The city will pay $413,000 to buy another 73 garage spots, and will lease the remaining 317 spaces from CPC for $50,000 per month for 16 years.

C-BIZ 49

Vertical horizon Apex helps Charlottesville ‘grow up’

COURTESY RENDERING

By Samantha Baars

M

embers of a local upscale fitness club will soon be looking for a place to park.

Apex Clean Energy—a company devoted to developing, constructing and operating wind and solar power facilities—announced plans March 1 to build a new headquarters on Garrett Street to house its 170 local employees who are currently spread out among three offices in town. The seven-story, 130,000-square-foot building will go right atop the downtown ACAC Fitness & Wellness Center’s gravel parking lot.

“We are happy to have Apex coming in as our neighbor,” says Meghan Hammond, senior marketing director of the fitness club. Staff is currently working on ways to “ease parking challenges” during construction.

Though Apex is knocking out the approximately 125-space gravel lot, a new parking

50 C-BIZ

garage with more than 380 spaces is included in its site plans, according to Hammond. It’ll also include—no surprise—multiple electric vehicle charging stations.

“Two hundred spaces in the garage will be open for ACAC clients during club hours,” says John Bahouth, senior vice president of administration at the renewable energy company that grew from fewer than 10 employees to 220 in nine years.

And of those employees, one in five participates in the company’s incentive program that encourages them to cycle, walk or rideshare to work.

The new headquarters will be designed by architectural firm William McDonough + Partners, and developed by Riverbend Development, which plans to offer 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Apex offices will anchor the building and occupy 60,000 square feet.

Apex expects a mid-spring ground breaking with a 24-month buildout. Its goal is for the building to generate its own energy.

“Our exact energy plans are still in process, but we’ll for certain generate energy from solar panels,” says Bahouth. The building is designed with a green roof and its location maximizes natural lighting and fresh air circulation.

Green roofs are partially or fully covered with soil, plants and vegetation, and one has existed atop City Hall and the Charlottesville Police Department since 2008.

Jim Duncan, who works out of the nearby Nest Realty office, calls Apex’s planned addition a “huge net positive.”

He’s an advocate for vertical density downtown. And as a friend recently punned, Duncan says, “Charlottesville’s growing up.”

“There’s always likely to be some consternation about more traffic and more density and the parking that comes along with it, but ultimately I think it’s the evolution of the city’s center,” he adds. “Hopefully it will entice people to walk more and ride their bikes more often.”

AMY JACKSON

COURTESY RENDERING

COURTESY RENDERING

C O N TI NUED F R OM PAGE 45

Developer Keith Woodard’s West2nd project, a mixed-use property that will include 85 residential units and a new home for the City Market, is slated to begin construction this fall. Nearby, low-income housing at Friendship Court has been renewed for the next two decades through an agreement between the Piedmont Housing Alliance and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

JACK LOONEY

cated developments, and they take time for the details to be worked out.”

West2nd developer Keith Woodard, whose Woodard Properties also owns McIntire Plaza and properties on and around the Downtown Mall, was unavailable for comment on the status of the project. But local media reports indicate construction should take about two years once it begins.

Meanwhile, the low-income housing at Friendship Court (418 Garrett St.) has been renewed for the next two decades through an agreement between the Piedmont Housing Alliance and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 150 units meet the HUD definition of affordable housing, and while detractors might be concerned about the residents’ ability to fuel commerce on the mall, some local business owners recognize their importance.

“That land is particularly valuable, and I’m glad PHA...doesn’t want to throw away the culture and the neighborhood,” says Hunter Smith, owner of nearby Champion Brewing Company and a PHA board member.

“When it comes to housing, my business is not my first thought.”

Smith says the downtown commercial sector is also seeing a resurgence due in part to last summer’s Unite the Right rally, with business owners coming together to drive their mutual interests via dialogue and marketing efforts.

Restaurateur Will Richey, Smith’s partner in Downtown Mall restaurant Brasserie Saison, agrees.

“Last year distinctly hurt us—there are no two ways about it,” Richey says. “I kind of feel like we are in a correction period, and we’ll be even stronger than we were before.”

Kahn says downtown parking, particularly settling the issues surrounding the Water Street garage, is also finally finding its groove.

Parking, he says, can make or break the success of a downtown area.

Businesses like Richey’s, certainly, rely on folks being able to access the mall—not to mention enjoy the spaces once they get there.

“We always worry about these big projects that will be two to three of years of construction, but on the other side, they are going to be great and bring more people downtown and give them new things to do and new places to work,” Richey says.

“It’s a cool transition.”

C-BIZ 51

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Backstory

Market place A

n entrepreneur by nature, Samuel Jessup founded the Monticello Dairy in 1912 in a small room in the Charlottesville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. building at the corner of Fourth and Water streets. He had owned the property since 1908 when he signed one of the soda company’s oldest franchise agreements, and offered the room to a man he met who was looking for a place to store his ice cream manufacturing equipment.

From there, the two established Monticello Dairy, which provided Charlottesville with milk, butter and ice cream for several decades. It also had

58 C-BIZ

an on-site ice cream parlor and event room. At its height, the business had 300 employees and 124 delivery trucks and trailers—growth that necessitated a move to a new building on Grady Avenue.

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including Harvest Moon Catering, Three Notch’d Brewing Company and Cho’s Nachos.

In March 2017, the building and surrounding five acres of land were purchased for $12 million. Stony Point Design/Build has planned an $80 million redevelopment that will start in September 2018.

The new space, scheduled to open in 2020, will be called Dairy Market and will mimic food emporiums like New York’s Chelsea Market or Atlanta’s Krog Street Market. It will include restaurants, retail stores, market stalls and communal dining areas.

A Virginia C ountry L ife

1432 SANDOWN LANE - Glenmore luxury with incredible golf course and mountain views. Situated on the 17th fairway with privacy, peace and quite.

The 6-bedroom house has a spacious kitchen, elegant living room (2-story) and wood paneled study. The terrace level includes extra bedrooms, office, media room and landscaped patio. MLS 572581

WHITE HART - c. 1998 Shelter and Associates English manor sited in the center of a 350-acre expanse of rolling northern Albemarle County farmland. Expansive views of the Southwest and Blue Ridge Mountain ranges, over 8,000 s.f. the 4 bedroom home, extraordinary setting and 20 min to Charlottesville. MLS 573304

THE GARDNER FARM - A personal parkland. Proximity to several international airports and mid-atlantic cities the Gardner farm is an expansive retreat of 1,563 acres that offers the highest degree of privacy and bucolic tranquility rural Virginia can offer. 4 miles of the South Anna River traverses the property with approximately 20 miles in trails extending through forests of poplar and oak. Several unique river crossings link this private parkland with numerous potential home sites, 4 scenic ponds and a 30 acre lake. MLS# 551631

HIGHLAND ORCHARD - Nearly 1,000-acres in Albemarle County, Virginia -20 min from Charlottesville and UVA. Situated among the headwaters of the Hardware River, Highland Orchard features a rolling pasture and woodland with a stylish contemporary residence situated to enjoy the spectacular views. The Main residence, guest house, farm managers cottage, formal greens pool and host of complimentary farm buildings make this one of the most extraordinary farm offering in Virginia.

KESWICK ESTATE - Located only 5 miles east of Charlottesville Keswick Estate offers the best building opportunities in the area. Adjoining the Keswick Hall and Golf Club with current renovations underway at the Hotel and and newly designed Pete Dye Golf Course, “Full Cry�, the chance to build your own signature custom home awaits.

Fulfill the dream and choose a homesite; golf views, water views or tranquil wooded views there is potential with myriad of options to select on homesite or house design.

419 NE SECOND ST. - NORTH DOWNTOWN CHARLOTTESVILLE Downtown Charlottesville city home c. 1920 with high ceilings and rear porch that is magical overlooking a private city yard. A rare offering with open floor plan, 3 bedrooms and additional 2-bdroom garden apartment. Do not miss this opportunity.

MLS 578358

Murdoch Matheson 434.981.7439 mmatheson@frankhardy.com murdoch-matheson.com

WE ARE CHARLOTTESVILLE'S BREWPUB OT TT TE ES WWEE AARREE CCHHAARRLLO SV V IILLLLEE''SS BBRREEWWPPUUBB

After leaving South Street Brewery to found Blue Mountain Brewery, having the chance to come back home to South Street has been the most special opportunity for our business and for my wife Mandi and me personally. We invite you to come enjoy the best of Charlottesville’s oldest brewery along with our new offerings. From Satan’s Pony to Soft Serve, from a range of gourmet pizzas to our signature wonchos, cheese curds, salads, sandwiches and Sunday Bloody Mary bar, visit us and enjoy a unique menu highlighted by twelve delicious beers on draft spanning styles from comfortingly traditional to wildly experimental. Thank you, Charlottesville, for 20 great years. Cheers to the next 20! – Taylor Smack

106West WestSouth SouthStreet Street 106 Charlottesville,VA VA 22902 22902 Charlottesville,

106 West South Street Charlottesville, VA 22902

SOUTHSTREETBREWERY.COM 434-293-6550 SOUTHSTREETBREWERY.COM 434-293-6550 FREE && Saturday Nights FREEValet ValetParking ParkingononFriday Friday Saturday Nights

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