(1) Charles "Chuck" Rotgin Jr. — President and CEO, Great Eastern Management Company
He may not have the biggest stack of chips at the table, but Chuck Rotgin earns the top spot by playing the most politically active role among major developers or property managers.
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To be sure, Great Eastern Management is big enough to earn some attention, with over 400 acres of holdings currently assessed at about $120 million. In particular, Rotgin has command over several shopping centers, including Riverbend at Pantops and a new Crozet center that includes Harris Teeter.
Like most good businessmen, Rotgin excels in the art of persuasion, particularly when it comes to repackaging what’s in his self-interest as something that’s vital to a much broader swath. When he sought a rezoning for his 269-acre North Pointe project in 2006, his team mobilized a crowd of supporters (many of them his own employees) to come out to the public hearing wearing “Vote Yes” pins. Even still, he needed a fourth vote for approval—and got it from Albemarle Supervisor David Slutzky, whom he convinced with argument that if this growth area project wasn’t built, it would lead to more growth in the rural area—one of Slutzky’s top concerns.
Unlike many other prominent developers, however, Rotgin looks out for business interests more broadly. That manifests itself in political donations, about $34,000 personally in the past 10 years to candidates for state office. More importantly, Rotgin is a principal player in the Monticello Business Alliance, a PAC that doled out about $82,000 in the last five years. Most of that money goes to Republicans: From 2005 to 2007, the county party received $38,000 from the Monticello Business Alliance, by far its biggest donor, and county Supervisor Ken Boyd received $18,500 in his re-election bid in 2007. Rotgin is not so naïve as to only give to the GOP: He’s personally given several hundred bucks each to Creigh Deeds, Mark Warner and David Toscano.
Money is not everything: Much of Rotgin’s influence stems from his longevity, too. He started Great Eastern in 1972, six years after graduating from UVA. When honored with the Chamber of Commerce small businessman of the year award in 2007, Rotgin was commended for mentoring newbies to the Charlottesville business world, connecting him not just with his own generation but the whippersnappers on the rise.
(2) Dr. Charles W. Hurt — Founder, Virginia Land Company
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Dr. Charles W. Hurt: With 3,000-plus acres to his name, including prime parcels held by his Virginia Land Company, he keeps a low profile but lets his holdings and developments talk for him. |
In 1990, The Washington Post wrote that Charles Hurt “is believed by many to be the biggest landowner in Albemarle County.” He denied it then, as he’d probably deny it today, but even after all these years, this medical doc turned real estate developer is still the biggest of them all—with over 3,000 acres of land assessed at $132 million—and possibly still the craftiest.
His firm, Virginia Land Company, has a lock on the most prime parcels left on Pantops, as well as a fair smattering of land in and around all sides of Charlottesville. Unlike, say, Chuck Rotgin, Hurt tends to develop land and sell it, rather than holding on to the investment. Over the years, who knows how many thousands of acres have cycled through his possession, bought with trees and glades and streams and sold with leveled lots and sanitary sewers?
“I’m not the biggest landowner,” he told the Post nearly 20 years ago, when he had between 4,000 and 5,000 acres, “but I guess I sell the most land.”
That interview was rare: Hurt shies away from the spotlight, preferring to exercise influence either under the radar or by proxy. While his political donations amount to more than most of us can give, they are hardly significant in the scheme of things—he’s given about $10,000 to state elections in the past 10 years. This mysterious element in some ways increases his power—he doesn’t become a lightening rod for criticism the way a more visible developer like Wendell Wood has done.
Through his land, Hurt has still wielded considerable influence. Take the water supply debate: It was Hurt who turned it on its head by offering his rock quarry near the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir as a possible disposal site for dredging. That quarry, combined with a proposal by his spin-off planning and design firm, Dominion Development Resources, is the principal reason that the cost of dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir has come down from $200 million to $30 million, giving supply-plan opponents a foot in the door.
(3) David Neuman — University Architect, UVA
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David Neuman: The man responsible for planning the image of UVA salvaged the South Lawn Project, backed LEED building standards and propped up UVA’s campus master plan. |
Charlottesville is a company town, and the University of Virginia is the company. And when it comes to the company’s real estate development, no single individual has a greater influence than University Architect David Neuman.
His title can be a little misleading: Neuman, who came to UVA from Stanford University in 2003, does not design every building at UVA, as virtually all of the projects are contracted out. What he does do, however, is plan future development and shape the framework for every building that the University puts up. Though the Board of Visitors must ultimately sign off on new buildings, it is Neuman who whips them into shape, from the new Emily Couric Cancer Center to the new info tech engineering building that broke ground April 17.
He has also used his position to push through some radical reforms, at least by UVA standards. Neuman, with the help of concerned students, urged the BOV to approve LEED “green” standards for all new buildings. He also championed the new campus master plan, which emphasizes growing upwards rather than growing outwards.
The rockiest period for Neuman came when he had to mediate controversy over the South Lawn Project. The BOV was afraid of “industrial” modernism, while numerous School of Architecture professors revolted by sending an open letter to the administration criticizing the “theme park of nostalgia.” After tossing several previous designs, Neuman presented designs by architect John Ruble that he called “right down the middle,” and the BOV approved them unanimously.
Additionally, Neuman serves as UVA’s ambassador to Charlottesville, sitting on the Charlottesville Planning Commission. And though his power there is rarely exercised and likely proscribed by his bosses, Leonard Sandridge and John Casteen, he still plays an important role as the eyes and ears of his higher ups.
(4) Glenn Brooks — Albemarle County Engineer
Maybe Brooks’ position sounds like that of a technocrat—but local developers don’t see it that way. To some degree, Brooks is just the scapegoat of developers’ frustrations with the county, a frustration that to some degree they will always feel when coming up against processes designed to protect the public from environmentally insensitive work. But according to them, Brooks wields his power more often than his predecessors and has been called the “Wizard of Oz” because he doesn’t grant many meetings, operating instead through written comments that have a tendency to hold up projects and burden developers with costly redesigns.
Though it’s the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors that approves projects, Brooks and other administrative staff play crucial roles by interpreting the details of what particular ordinances mean in practice. More than the supervisors, county staff like Brooks determines how swiftly and cheaply a project moves through the pipeline.
Take as an example a plan to build 20 houses on an undeveloped parcel with the proper zoning in place. All’s on target… until Glenn Brooks rules that the stream crossing is illegal. Suddenly, 15 of the 20 parcels are off-limits, and the development that was supposed to bring in $8 million in revenue suddenly is down to a measly $2 million. If he’s lucky, the developer can spend more money on the stream crossing; if unlucky, he has to redesign the process. And if he’s litigious, he can appeal to the circuit court, as Richard Spurzem did recently over his plans for his portion of North Pointe. Any way it’s cut, it’s more money spent—and Brooks is there to blame.
(5) Hunter Craig — Developer
While many of the other major property owners in the local development scene are old timers, Hunter Craig is a relative newbie. A hybrid of the Hurt and Rotgin model, Craig finds his place in the power list by positioning himself to be the biggest landowner for the generation to come—though that could depend on whether his Biscuit Run development is a lodestone or a millstone.
In the past four years, Craig has made a flurry of multimillion-dollar purchases. Craig owns at least two buildings on the Corner, including the Chancellor Building (with The White Spot, Freeman-Victorius frame shop and the Corner Market) for $2.6 million as well as the buildings with Ragged Mountain Running Shop and Three. He bought the Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall for $7 million, and the Mall’s Wachovia tower in October for $6.7 million.
Of course, his most notable property right now is Biscuit Run, the massive project on the south side of Charlottesville that was rezoned in 2007 to allow 3,100 housing units on 900 acres. But how wise was his purchase of the property for $46 million? It probably depends on how quickly the market turns around. Rumor has it he’s currently trying to unload the property for $50 million, which likely comes out to a net loss.
As he’s consistently demurred interview requests by the media, Craig remains something of an enigma. “Hunter is shy,” explained PR rep Susan Payne when a C-VILLE reporter tried to talk to him after a Biscuit Run hearing.
However, he can’t be that shy—Craig is the vice chairman of the board of Virginia National Bank, and served on the board of the UVA Foundation from 1995 to 2003. Moreover, he managed to get through the Biscuit Run rezoning process without royally pissing off the environmental community. Like Rotgin, he finds a way to stay active on the political front. He’s kicked $13,000 to GOP candidate Bob McDonnell for governor, though he’s also given $4,500 to Democrat David Toscano and, through an LLC, $4,200 to county Democrat David Slutzky.