Tag: Fashion Square Mall

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In brief 11/27/2024

Former 5th District Congressman Denver Riggleman is expanding his Riggleman Information and Intelligence Group. Supplied photo.

Big RIIG

A cybersecurity and risk intelligence firm founded by former Republican congressman Denver Riggleman recently secured $3 million in seed funding. His company, Riggleman Information and Intelligence Group, said in a November 19 press release that the money will go toward the launch of AI solutions and expanding its workforce and client support.

RIIG specializes in open-source intelligence, using AI technology to offer security and risk management for organizations across government and business sectors. In an evolving cybersecurity landscape, the firm boasts access to 17 intel agencies and collaborations with commercial and academic partners.

Funding was led by the Felton Group, a family office of Charlottesville-based hedge fund manager Jaffray Woodriff. 

“RIIG applauds the support of Felton Group and their appreciation of the vision laid out for advanced AI, cyber threat identification and analysis products set for delivery in 2025,” Riggleman said in the release. 

For Riggleman, the firm represents a return to his business and technology roots. He co-founded a contracting company in 2007 that supported the intelligence community and Department of Defense programs.

The Felton Group invested earlier this year in two other companies with local ties—Caju AI, a platform offering customer engagement solutions, and DoorList, an event-management application. Woodriff, a University of Virginia alum, donated $120 million to establish the university’s School of Data Science in 2019.

Welcome Home (Depot)

Supplied image.

An increasing number of shopping centers have struggled over the last
two decades, creating a “dead mall” phenomenon across the U.S. Charlottesville’s  Fashion Square is no exception, and is trying to buck the trend—starting with a Home Depot set to open in summer 2025.

The home-improvement retailer announced plans for a July 2025 opening following the purchase of the shuttered Sears in September 2022. The new store will create more than 100 jobs, according to Albemarle County, and marks the first Home Depot in the area.

Although foot traffic has declined, Fashion Square sits at the busy intersection of U.S. 29 and Rio Road. Home Depot has agreed to support the county in its Rio29 plan to create a mixed-use, walkable hub at the site. In addition to the former Sears location, Home Depot purchased much of the remaining spaces in the mall for a total investment of more than $26 million.

“This public-private partnership jumpstarts the first development with speed, cleans up environmental contamination present at the site, and significantly contributes to transportation connectivity through the Rio29 area,” Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Chair Jim Andrews said during an August meeting.

Self improvement

Diving back into the headlines, UVA swimmer Gretchen Walsh bested her own American record with a time of 47.35 seconds in the women’s short course 100 butterfly at the Tennessee Invitational on November 21. An Olympic medalist, Walsh made waves earlier this year when she set the world record in the long course 100-meter fly during the U.S. Olympic trials semi-finals. She won four gold and two silver medals at the Paris Olympics, where she competed on Team USA alongside her sister Alex, also a UVA student-athlete. UVA second year and fellow Olympic medalist Claire Curzan set another American record on the last day of the meet, with a time of 1:46.87 in the 200-meter backstroke.

Location TBD

The Salvation Army is looking for a new spot for its thrift store ahead of the anticipated conversion about turning the site into a low-barrier shelter, according to a November 20 Charlottesville Tomorrow article. The creation of a low-barrier, year-round shelter has long been a top priority for city and local nonprofit leaders amid a rising unhoused and housing insecure population. Work on the shelter could begin as early as next year.

Zones of interest

In a bonus newsletter released November 21, Charlottesville City Schools shared updates about its ongoing elementary rezoning project, including the extension of the feedback period through the end of 2024. More information about potential phasing of the rezoning will be available once the community advisory committee reaches a final recommendation, according to Superintendent Royal Gurley.

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Project Julius to help Home Depot’s redevelopment of Fashion Square Mall

Albemarle County entered into a public-private partnership with Home Depot in 2022. The home improvement hub plans to turn the former Sears at Fashion Square Mall into a new store and garden center. Image via MG2.

Shortly after the signalized intersection at Rio Road and U.S. 29 was converted to an underpass in July 2016, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors adopted a small area plan to encourage redevelopment of the immediate area to be more dense to meet the needs of the 21st century. 

“The plan identifies the Rio Road/29 intersection as the heart of urban Albemarle County and it designated the four quadrants as critical for the commercial corridor’s future,” says Emily Kilroy, Albemarle’s interim economic development director. “It envisions a dense, walkable, bikeable transit-connected environment.” 

Nearly six years later, the county entered into a public-private partnership with Home Depot to redevelop the former Sears at Fashion Square Mall into a new store and garden center. The Atlanta-based retailer purchased the site, as well as dozens of individual retail spaces inside the mall, in September 2022. 

County officials have approved plans for the new store, but Home Depot’s development costs have increased. 

“It was primarily associated with the demolition of the former Sears and the Sears Auto Center, which had a requirement for asbestos abatement as well as brownfield remediation,” said J.T. Newberry, deputy director of the Albemarle Office of Economic Development. 

Newberry told the board of supervisors on August 21 that the higher costs may have been a barrier to Home Depot proceeding. The county and its Economic Development Authority negotiated terms for a tax increment financing agreement under the codename Project Julius to grant up to $750,000 in real property tax rebates over 10 years. 

In exchange, Home Depot has to be open by December 24, 2025. The company will also dedicate land for a future realignment of Hillsdale Drive, called for in the Rio Road plan.  

“They will help actively market the former Red Lobster site, which is currently vacant,” Newberry said. 

In addition to more property taxes to be generated from the site, Newberry said Albemarle expects the new store to produce between $400,000 and $500,000 a year in local sales taxes. He said the store is expected to create 100 jobs.     

Kilroy says Fashion Square Mall is ripe for a public-private partnership to try to implement that vision. She presented the Board of Supervisors with a slide depicting the decline in value from around $70 million in 2014 to just below $20 million this year. 

“Redevelopment of this parcel will correct what has been a stark decline in property value for this area,” Kilroy says, adding that the county’s investment will support the first major private reinvestment since the Rio Road plan was adopted. 

Belk Stores of Virginia continues to own its store, and developer Richard Hewitt owns the former JCPenney. Albemarle County now rents a portion of that property for a public safety fleet operations center. 

Other investments in the area have not had a public component. Earlier this year, the Carter Machinery Company purchased a 4.67-acre property to the east of the Northside Library for $3.53 million. It has since opened a rental store for construction and lawn equipment, eliminating parking spaces that had been rented for library patrons. 

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In brief: CBD dispensary opens, Fashion Square Mall auctioned

David Treccariche says his new CBD dispensary, Skooma, could "set the standard" for dispensaries in town. Photo: Eze Amos.

High roller: Boutique dispensary opens downtown 

The future of pot has arrived in Charlottesville. And it looks like an Apple store. 

Skooma, the town’s newest CBD dispensary, opened on the Downtown Mall earlier this month. For the moment, the slick operation is offering the weed-adjacent products that are currently widely available in Virginia—edibles and plants that offer the muscle-relaxing benefits of CBD but lack THC, the ingredient in regular marijuana with hallucinogenic effects. 

Skooma’s style, however, immediately sets it apart from some of the city’s other CBD stores. The shop is pristine and spacious, with hemp flowers perched atop modern stands and employees floating around in floor-length white lab coats. 

Owner David Treccariche says the aesthetic is intentional. Skooma (named after a drug from the Elder Scrolls video game series) is a self-described “boutique” cannabis shop, differentiating it from other head and smoke shops, which Trecaricche says usually have “annoying signs on the door…bright flashing lights [and]  a different environment.”

Before entering the marijuana business, Trecaricche founded a car dealership and worked as an operations manager for Tiger Fuel Company. After recognizing marijuana’s increased presence in mainstream American life, he decided “to jump feet first” into the market for legal weed. He plans to transition to selling THC-based products once he’s legally allowed to do so, and says he’ll eventually open a second location, using demographic information from customers to decide where it should be located. 

Treccariche says he hopes his shop will “set the standard” for dispensaries in the Charlottesville area as the legal buying and selling of marijuana approaches in 2024. For now, one of Skooma’s main points of emphasis is to match customers’ different preferences and comfort levels and “educate” wherever it can. 

“Some people are just strictly gummies, and that’s great, we love that,” he says. “And some people like to be old school and smoke, and that’s great too.” With full legalization in sight, entrepreneurs like Treccariche have set their sights high.—Joseph Riley   

City approves eviction right-to-counsel program 

During its Monday night meeting, Charlottesville City Council dedicated $300,000 of American Rescue Plan funds to establish a right-to-counsel pilot program for eviction hearings. Charlottesville is the first city in the south to guarantee representation for those facing eviction. An additional $400,000 was allocated towards emergency rent assistance. Headed by the Legal Aid Justice Center, the new program will include community outreach and education, as well as rent relief navigation and support. Once the Centers for Disease Control’s ban on evictions ends on July 31, local housing activists, who have been advocating for the program since spring, say the legal representation will help keep struggling tenants in their homes.

“We’ve had several drivers get sick. We’ve been here with the major snowstorms. We were there on August 11 and 12…The need for a transit union is one that is long overdue for us.” 

—CAT bus driver Matthew Ray, advocating for a collective bargaining ordinance for city employees during Monday’s City Council meeting

In brief

Guns down in Albemarle

Tighter gun control could soon be coming to Albemarle County. On Wednesday night, the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing and then vote on an ordinance outlawing guns in buildings, parks, and community centers owned (or used) by the county. Some community members have spoken out against the proposal, claiming it will not prevent gun violence and will negatively impact law-abiding gun owners. Localities across the state have enacted similar gun bans—Charlottesville enacted a very similar policy last year.

Sold!

Fashion Square Mall. Photo: Jack Looney.

The practically-empty Fashion Square Mall was up for auction last week. During a foreclosure auction outside the Albemarle County Circuit Courthouse on Friday, the mall’s mortgage lender, an LLC called Charlottesville JP 2014-C21 LLC, bid back and forth with local real estate mogul Richard Hewitt for about 20 minutes, before repurchasing the property for $20.2 million, reports the Daily Progress. The mall’s owner, Washington Prime Group Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. The long-term future of the mall remains to be seen.

Game of Throneburgs   

A new politician has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2022 5th Congressional District race. Josh Throneburg, a minister and small business owner, has announced that he’s running as a Democrat for the seat currently held by Bob Good. Throneburg hopes to create green jobs in rural areas, expand access to healthcare, and work to address systemic racism. He says he was inspired to run by his daughters and “the uncertain future they are inheriting.”

Updated 7/26: An earlier version misspelled Josh Throneburg’s name.

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In brief: Tree huggers, get out of dodge (challenger), and more

Paul Summers pulls a Frazier Fur tree, which he sells for $75 each, from a shed near the Knights Gambit tasting room on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. Summers sources the pre-cut trees from a farm near Mount Rogers. He gives all the proceeds to the Charlottesville Area Community Fund in honor of his late daughter Alex who passed away in 2007. PC: Zack Wajsgras

Tree huggers

On an unseasonably warm December Sunday, Yoseph Asmellash, owner of Little River Christmas Trees, had dozens of Fraser and Douglas fir trees for sale in the parking lot of the Fashion Square Mall—one of many local spots for buying Christmas trees that pop up around the holidays. Asmellash, a native of Ethiopia who’s been selling trees for over 20 years, got into the business after working at a garden center during high school and college.

Business has been brisk, he says, and he orders new trees weekly–ever since the time, about 10 years ago, when he ended up with several hundred extra trees on his hands. He had to offer a buy-one-get-one-free sale (sometimes adding a third tree to the deal). 

When he’s not selling trees, Asmellash, who lives in Arlington, runs several other seasonal businesses across Virginia, including pumpkin patches. In the off months, he operates a tax service.  

Fir facts:

  • Asmellash orders about 800 trees per year for his spot at the Fashion Square Mall
  • His trees come from Whitetop, Virginia, and Sparta, North Carolina 
  • According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the price of Christmas trees has gone up about 10 percent nationwide, due to limited supplies of Christmas trees—caused by hotter weather, too much rain, and the ripple effects of the 2008 recession that cut demand for trees (and led to less trees being planted)

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Quote of the week

“We should declare ourselves as a sanctuary city, as some other communities have done…We should declare ourselves a sanctuary city against monuments, statues, and memorials that glorify slaveholders, that lift up racists and rapists and traitors.” —Rev. Don Gathers, addressing City Council at its final meeting of the year.

_____________________

In brief

No go

Five months after James Fields used a gray Dodge Challenger to mow down dozens of people at the Unite the Right rally, killing Heather Heyer, the Charlottesville Police Department added a gray Dodge Challenger, which also featured “thin blue line” decals, to its official fleet. Though the car was purchased in January 2018, the department told C-VILLE last August that it had been “designed and purchased” well before the attack. Asked to explain this discrepancy, spokesman Tyler Hawn called it “a misunderstanding.” Last week, the city announced that the car has been removed from service in response to community feedback. 

CPD purchased a Dodge Challenger in January 2018. PC: Staff Photo

Borer war

Charlottesville’s ash trees are dying, thanks to an infestation of the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that arrived from Asia in 2002. The Charlottesville Tree Commission has mapped 107 ash trees in the city, and anticipates that 99 percent of them will succumb to the borer. Last week, representatives from the Tree Commission asked the Planning Commission for money to fight the bugs, but it remains to be seen if there will be enough space in the budget.

Tragic loss

The Charlottesville community mourns the death of St. Anne’s graduate Tessa Majors, who was fatally stabbed in a botched mugging in Manhattan’s Morningside Park on December 11. Majors, 18, was a freshman at Barnard College. A musician, Majors had just released a new album and had a series of local shows scheduled. A 13-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with her death.

Put it in “D”

It’s not just your imagination–Virginia really is home to some of the country’s worst drivers. According to a nationwide study by insurance company QuoteWizard, Virginia drivers earned a “D” grade, losing points for distracted driving and frequency of accidents. The worst city in our driving hellscape of a state, per the study, is Manassas. 

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In brief: Adjournment day, Short stay, Fashion Square buzz and more

Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax presides over the state's senate in Richmond, Virginia, U.S., February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake (Newscom TagID: rtrlten858176.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

Scandal marred

It was the most eventful—and scandal-plagued— session of the General Assembly in recent memory. Over in the executive branch, Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring’s past blackface antics were revealed and drew calls for Northam to resign. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax faced accusations of sexual assault, which he denied and called a “political lynching.” Both the Northam and Fairfax scandals were initially publicized by a right-wing website owned by Reilly O’Neal, a North Carolina political operative whose clients have included Roy Moore and Corey Stewart.

Local Delegate Rob Bell plans to hold a hearing on the Fairfax allegations in the Courts of Justice Committee, which he chairs, although it’s unclear if Vivian Tyson, who says Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in 2004, will attend, amid her concerns of being “embroiled in a highly charged political environment,” according to her lawyers.

And Delegate David Toscano, 68, who served as House minority leader for seven years, announced on the last day of the session he will not seek reelection to an eighth term representing the 57th District.

Amid the scandals, legislators, all of whose seats are up for grabs in November, also passed some new laws.

Laying down the laws

  • Gerrymandering: Long an issue for legislators like state Senator Creigh Deeds, a redistricting bill finally got the nod from both houses. The constitutional amendment, which would establish an independent commission to draw state and congressional lines, still has to pass the General Assembly next year and then go to voters before it’s official.
  • Felony DUI: Drunk driving that results in serious injury, as was the case with an 8-year-old Palmyra girl who was almost killed in a 2017 crash, will now be a felony with passage of a Rob Bell bill.
  • Jamycheal Mitchell’s law: Another Bell bill requires the Board of Corrections to establish standards for mental health care after Mitchell, 24, stole $5 worth of snacks and languished in a Hampton Roads jail for months before dying of heart failure and severe weight loss.
  • Tommie’s law: Penalty for animal torture is upped from misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony. The bill passed both houses unanimously after Tommie, the Richmond dog tied to a pole, doused with accelerant and set on fire, died.
  • No-excuses voting: Citizens can cast absentee ballots in person one week before an election, starting in 2020.
  • Wage discrimination: A Jim Crow-era law that allowed employers to pay less for jobs once frequently held by African Americans—such as newsboys, shoe-shine boys, and doormen—passed both houses, with Delegate Matt Fariss one of the 14 “no” votes.
  • Keep talking: The General Assembly was poised to ban driving while using a hand-held cellphone, but at the last minute voted to allow talking, but no texting or web surfing.
  • No spoofing: Displaying Virginia area codes if not in the commonwealth is prohibited, but whether the toothless Class 3 misdemeanor will deter robo-callers remains to be seen.
  • Public notice: Before state universities hike tuition, they must hold public hearings—if Northam signs the bill into law.

Quote of the week

“This was their chance to actually take a vote on ratifying the ERA, and they blew it.”—Delegate David Toscano on House Republican leadership redirecting a vote on the Equal Rights Amendment back to committee

In brief

More to C

A revised tourism campaign, which features a “more to C” theme, wins points with the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau after an earlier campaign touting “C’villeization” bombed.

Rumor mill

Several people have contacted us to ask if Fashion Square Mall is for sale—and one said UVA had purchased it. Not true, says UVA spokesman Anthony de Bruyn, who adds the university has no interest in doing so. And Washington Prime Group, the parent company of Fashion Square, “has no plans to close or sell the mall at this time,” says spokeswoman Kimberly Green.

Can’t get a date

Charlottesville for Reasonable Health Insurance, which called out Sentara-owned Optima’s 2018 tripling of health insurance premiums here, says it wasn’t invited to Congressman Denver Riggleman’s February 19 meeting with Sentara Martha Jefferson to find ways to make health care affordable, nor, says the group, can it get on Riggleman’s calendar.

Back where he came from

Former Trump staffer Marc Short, who drew controversy—and two resignations—when he joined UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs as a senior fellow in August, is stepping down and headed back to the White House, where he’ll serve as chief of staff to Mike Pence. Tweeted UVA professor of religious studies Jalane Schmidt, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

wikimedia

Bare-breasted Virtus

ERA activist Michelle Renay Sutherland was arrested February 18 for enacting the Virginia state seal, which features Virtus with an exposed left breast. A judge initially ordered her held without bond for the misdemeanor charge, but she was finally released three days later.