Author: chiara-canzi

One of the city’s biggest development projects is set to break ground after years of delay.

The Coal Tower project, located at the end of Water Street and owned by Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw, has been renamed “City Walk.” It’s a fitting moniker: Plans call for the eastward extension of Water Street and a multi-use trail for bikers and pedestrians that will connect the end of the road to the entrance of the Woolen Mills neighborhood.

The original plans for City Walk called for a residential development as big as the real estate market circa 2006. The developer, Atlanta-based Metzger & Co., intended to build townhouses along Carlton Avenue and Water Street Extended. Those buildings comprised a total 315 residential units, 250,000 square feet of commercial space, and mixed-use buildings around the property, including a nine-story tower.

More after the photo.

The Coal Tower is a Historically Designated Property.

“That plan was scrapped when the downturn hit,” said City Planner Brian Haluska. “There are no 9-story buildings involved anymore. It’s now a four-story central building that’s going to be an apartment complex with an attached garage.”

With the addition of three smaller, three-story apartment buildings along Carlton Avenue, the 302 total residential units will be a combination of one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites.

After a long pause, City Walk is closing in on its start date. According to city spokesman Ric Barrick, developers hope to begin construction on the first of the year. Construction was postponed until the developer could secure financing from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), said Barrick. Calls to the developer were not returned by this publication deadline.

“All of the buildings are down at the east end of the property,” said Haluska. “They are leaving a fair amount of open space between those buildings and the intersections of Water and 10th streets.”

The multi-use trail, which is still in the plans, is intended as a transportation alternative for city residents who would rather walk or bike than drive. The trail, which will be developed with the project, will run along the south side of Water Street from that road’s eastern extension along the train tracks to Meade Avenue.

Originally, the city was awarded a grant to build the trail, but, according to Chris Gensic, city park and trail planner, Metzger & Co. decided to take on the project and hand it over to the city, free of charge. “We decided to take that grant money and attempt to complete a trail all the way to Meade Park,” said Gensic.

In keeping with the recent efforts to make Charlottesville more bike friendly, the city will also build a trail from the corner of Water and 10th streets to the Belmont Bridge back to the Downtown Mall near the Transit Center. The timeline of that trail’s construction, however, is still unknown, and depends on the bridge’s renovation, according to Gensic.

 

Kristin Rourke, a UVA graduate student from Houston, Texas and intern with the City’s Neighborhood Development Services department, came up with the idea of identifying historic and interesting sites around the city, recording a brief profile and make it available to all via mobile phone. Now, the city’s new Audio Tour website is up and running, and the city’s Public Works department is in the process of putting up the signs.

“I thought it was a great thing to have in Charlottesville as a way of letting people hear more of the stories of the places that they see without having to actually have an official tour, having to buy a tour guide and read it,” she said. “It’s a different way of telling the history [of the city.]”

More after the photo.

Sample signage for the historic sites. Photo courtesy of City of Charlottesville.

The 10 chosen sites, which include the Albemarle County Courthouse, Jackson Park, the Old County Jail, the Downtown Mall, the Nancy West House site, the Sacajawea statue and Vinegar Hill among others, will be highlighted by a sign with both a telephone number and a QR code, which will allow users to link directly to the audio recording for the corresponding site.

The project is sponsored and supported by the Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee (CHRC). Rourke said she tried to keep expenditures to a minimum and estimates the initial cost to less than $500. Specifically, $330 went for signage and the additional cost of the phone line through next year, according to Mary Joy Scala, the city’s Preservation and Design Planner.

The recordings feature the voices of residents and elected officials including Mayor Dave Norris, City Councilor Satyendra Huja, former mayor Kay Slaughter and former Sheriff Cornelia Johnson among others.

“We wanted to have a variety, male voices, female voices, old voices, young voices…so that people could have a different audio experience,” said Rourke.

An audio or visual tour of the city’s most historic sites was also brought forth in one of the Dialogue on Race’s initial study circles, but Rourke said she that although has worked mainly with CHRC members, she doesn’t rule out possible future partnerships. 

“In the future I may work with them, because the goal is to add more sites, eventually, because there is so much more than just these first ones,” said Rourke. “I think it would be great to add the Jefferson School.” 

 

Today, the Piedmont chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed three candidates for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

In a press conference in the lobby of the County Office Building, Sierra Club representatives endorsed Democratic candidates for the Scottsville District Chris Dumler (Scottsville), Ann Mallek (White Hall, current chair) and Cynthia Neff (Rivanna). In turn, the candidates vowed to work to protect the county’s land.

Tom Olivier, the group’s president, said that the Sierra Club endorses candidates “we believe have the ability to simultaneously protect the environment and provide opportunities for better lives for people.”

Dumler, an attorney running against Republican Jim Norwood, said that the city he grew up in in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, was “the poster child” for unchecked growth, something he opposes happen in Albemarle County. Dumler has served on the Albemarle County Natural Heritage Committee. 

More after the photo.

The candidates with Sierra Club officials in the lobby of the Albemarle County building. Chiara Canzi photo.

Dumler said that he is “tired of the old divide” between environmental organizations and developers and wants to create an atmosphere of collaboration in attracting businesses to the county.

Mallek said that Albemarle County has a reputation of being a “progressive and sustainable place,” characteristics that can be appealing to businesses and companies thinking of making Albemarle their home. No business would want to be associated “with a place that is backwards,” she said.

Neff, who is running against Republican incumbent Ken Boyd, said that when she was a young child, her hero was John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. She emphasized the need to keep conservation easements an active tool in protecting the county’s land from sprawl and overgrowth.

The Sierra Club previously endorsed two candidates for Charlottesville City Council, Democrats Dede Smith and Colette Blount. Smith won one of the three Democratic nominations.  

Independent City Council candidate Paul Long announced yesterday that he is withdrawing from the race due to financial reasons. He also endorsed fellow Independents Brandon Collins and Andrew Williams.

“I have taken on a part-time job because I have some financial debt that I have to pay off,” he said in an interview. Long added that in addition to working full-time at the UVA Medical Center, this new commitment would not give him the necessary time to “maintain an effective campaign that I think the residents of Charlottesville deserve.”

Long believes the four remaining candidates will fare well against the three Democratic nominees in the race for three City Council seats. He endorsed Collins for the candidate’s commitment to addressing poverty and homelessness in the city. Long said he would like the city to take a more direct approach to aid the homeless and use the budget surplus to help faith-based organizations run a year-round shelter.

Both Collins and Williams thanked Long for his endorsement and vowed to continue his work through their campaigns.

More after the photo.

Independent Candidate Paul Long, along with Brandon Collins (left) and Andrew Williams, in front of City Hall.

Williams, who is the youngest and only African American candidate, said he offers a different, young perspective that is in opposition to partisan corporate politics.

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” he said in an interview. “To solve new problems, you need a new perspective, you need fresh new ideas. I am not stuck in my ways to due partisan politics.”

Long and Collins share the same idea that Charlottesville is a “wealthy” city that “does not look after poor people, that does not look after working people, and does not support human rights,” said Collins.

Although a longtime Democrat, Long has been dissatisfied with the local Democratic Party, but said that he likes one of the three nominees. “If I do vote for a Democrat, it would be Dede Smith, because I think she represents an open mind and progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” he said.

According to the latest financial filings, Democrat Kathy Galvin has raised the most money, $12,263, closely followed by Smith with $10,278 and Incumbent Satyendra Huja with $8,589. Collins leads the Independent pack with the most money raised, $1,251, followed by Bob Fenwick with $928, Scott Bandy with $480 and Williams, in last, with $130.
 

Halsey Minor, owner of the Landmark Hotel on the Downtown Mall, has hired a new developer to finish what he started more than four years ago.

The chosen man is Tim Dixon, who was recently named Hotelier of the Year by the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association, and whose Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee was named Boutique Hotel of the Year for the second consecutive year.

“Tim and I think exactly alike,” said Minor in an interview. “When I walked into his hotel, I already knew that he was the guy." He says that he and Dixon share a vision of how a hotel should function: "Basically, what he believes, and what I believe and what is the core of everything that he does, is that a hotel experience tells a story and it has to be a part of the community."

Since construction halted on the Landmark Hotel, Minor has spent a fair deal of his time in court. Minor’s company, Minor Family Hotels LLC, won $4.2 million in damages and $2.2 in legal fees from the Landmark’s former developer, Lee Danielson, after an arbitration hearing favored Minor. Last September, Minor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to consolidate multiple hotel lawsuits into a single venue. According to Richard Maxwell, Minor’s attorney, a judge in federal bankruptcy court gave Minor until January 13 to submit a reorganization plan to keep his hotel plans alive.

More after the photo. 

The Landmark Hotel sits half-built on the Downtown Mall.

According to Maxwell, Dixon testified before the bankruptcy court about the development of his own boutique hotel in Milwaukee, about the current state of the industry and his vision for the Landmark. “He testified that he would be able to have a plan by January 13 and secure financing by that time,” said Maxwell.

The Landmark Hotel has sat unfinished and exposed to the elements since 2008. Minor, however, doesn’t seem worried.

“As it turns out, the actual building itself is in perfect condition,” he said. “We went in and a lot of people have wondered, including us, have there been problems? It’s concrete, some exposed, and even the air conditioners are designed to be exposed.”

Minor said Dixon might change the hotel’s layout to be more in line with his aesthetic, but the last major hurdle is securing financing.

“The problem from a financing standpoint is that most of the financing is going to buying bankrupt hotels for less money. There is very little money going to ground-up [hotels],” he said. Minor added that with the combination of the money he will put in, Dixon’s reputation and background and the minimal amount of debt needed to finish the hotel, “it’s our hope that one of the Charlottesville banks would step up and, for what is a pretty low risk opportunity, get some very good publicity from the community for helping to finish this thing."

Meanwhile, the bank that originally financed the Landmank Hotel, Atlanta-based Silverton Bank, has run into problems of its own. Last month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) filed a $71 million lawsuit against Silverton in order to minimize its losses after the bank was taken over by the FDIC in 2009.

In the suit, the FDIC argues that Silverton’s officials spent millions on lavish retreats and a corporate jet. Specialty Finance Group (SFG), a subsidiary of Silverton Bank, gave Minor a $23.6 million construction loan in 2008 and later filed a lawsuit against him for defaulting on $10.5 million on that loan.

“I may have to fight the FDIC for the rest of my life, because I will not pay a dollar to a bank that blew itself up because it was irresponsible in the way that it manages money. I just won’t,” said Minor, who said he owns the Landmark and “claimed title to it.” 

A call to an FDIC spokesperson for comment was not immediately returned.

Minor’s legal issues are far from over, but he is confident the Landmark will be finished, although it’s too early to say when.

“I honestly think [Dixon] will create in Charlottesville one of the top 25 boutique hotels in the country,” said Minor, who wants the community to be part of the hotel.
“That was my whole thing. If people are coming to Charlottesville, they are going to call and ask where to stay and getting recommendations from people in town is really important.”

For the history of the Landmark Hotel, click here.