Tag: Waterhouse

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In brief: statue antics, spelling mishaps, PVCC graduation, and more

Students Sarah Fadhil (left) speaks during a graduation ceremony for students getting their GED's through the Thomas Jefferson Adult and Career Education program at PVCC on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019. Photo by Zack Wajsgras

On their own terms

“If you have a dream, and you focus on it, and you work hard, your dream will come true one day,” Bushiri Salumu told a small crowd assembled at Piedmont Virginia Community College on Thursday, November 7. He spoke from experience: Salumu lost family members to the civil war in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and lived in a refugee camp in Zambia for four years before arriving in Charlottesville in 2012. While working at a car wash and as a housekeeper, Salumu managed to learn English, become a U.S. citizen, and complete his GED. Now, he works at UVA hospital and hopes to become a nurse practitioner.

Salumu was the keynote student speaker at a graduation ceremony for adult learners from the PVCC Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education program, which offers English language classes, career skills instruction, and GED and NEDP high school credential programs. 

“The United States is a country where dreams can come true,” said Salumu. “It doesn’t matter where you come from or how you look.”

Each of the seven graduates took the podium to tell their story and thank their families and teachers for helping them along the way. 

“I will continue to excel in my own time frame with no regrets,” said Crystal Morris, who earned her GED while juggling “two jobs, two leases, and a crying toddler.”

“To my fellow graduates—our lives may once have held bitterness and sadness,” said Sarah Fadhil, who arrived in the United States in 2017 and joined TJACE to learn English. “But now, all we need to do is look forward, with your head held high, and smile. Congratulations to all of us to succeed in our way.”

 

Quote of the week

“Two words have never been spoken in the 400-year history of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the House of Delegates: ‘Madam Speaker.’” —Senator Adam P. Ebbin on Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn’s election as the first woman speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates

In brief

Oops

A judge has dismissed a felony explosives possession charge against a Zion Crossroads man who was pulled over for having expired license plates and arrested when Charlottesville police mistook a tire pressure gauge in his car for a pipe bomb. Police searched the car after smelling marijuana and the department’s newly-hired bomb-sniffing dog identified the device, which police detonated. On Twitter, city councilor-elect Michael Payne called the case “an example of why we need a strong, independent Civilian Police Review Board.” 

Spelling counts

Delegate Nick Freitas failed to get his name on the ballot this fall due to incomplete paperwork, leading the Republican incumbent to rely on a large-scale write-in campaign. But that left voters with the challenge of spelling his name. Culpeper administrators, who had to sift through more than 5,000 write-in votes, accepted Nick Feitas, Nick Freitos, Nick F, and the mononym Friets as legitimate votes, but nixed voters’ choices for Friems, Freton, Freit Rick, Nick Fruit, and NICKTKLE.  

To catch a vandal 

Downtown’s controversial statue of Stonewall Jackson has been vandalized more than once, and Jackson defenders may be taking matters into their own hands: A small camouflaged trail camera and a bell attached to a wire were recently found near the monument. Charlottesville police removed the items soon after pictures were circulated online, and said the camera did not belong to the department. 

Pricey pied-a-terre

Some of the most expensive—and longest unoccupied—residential real estate downtown is finally seeing movement. Architect Bill Atwood’s Waterhouse project, which houses WorldStrides, put deluxe condos on the market in 2015. Most were still empty in 2017, when Atwood said he was “land banking” them, before losing them to creditors in 2018. In September, John and Renee Grisham picked up one of the units for $1.079 million.

Bill Atwood in his Waterhouse project.

Wright stuff

Harold Wright, the founder and general manager of NBC29, will call it quits after 46 years heading Charlottesville’s first TV station, according to the Progress. David Hughes, news director for WDBJ Roanoke, will succeed Wright.

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UPDATE: Auction postponed for Waterhouse condos

Architect Bill Atwood’s plan to land bank the top floors of Waterhouse has taken an abrupt turn toward foreclosure and auction at the courthouse January 29. Stephen Barling

The foreclosure auction of four Waterhouse condos scheduled for Monday, January 29, was canceled, and trustees for the sale are mum about why.

Isak Howell is named as a substitute trustee on the legal notice that ran in the Daily Progress, but the phone number listed is for a Roanoke law firm that says he hasn’t worked there in a while.

Lawyer Jonathan Deem, who represents Water Street Investments LLC, the Chuck Rotgin entity that holds a $20-million credit line deed of trust and that initiated the foreclosure sale, did not return phone calls from C-VILLE.

Nor did substitute trustee David Mitchell, who works for Rotgin at Great Eastern Management and who is a defendant in a case heard in court last week brought by the only buyer of the primo, top-level condos in Waterhouse. Lauren Driscoll found her 2014 purchase was also under foreclosure.

According to her attorney, David Thomas, the would-be foreclosers sent a letter to the court January 26 postponing the sale of all the condos until February 14.

And because the lienholders said in court they didn’t need to re-advertise the sale if it took place within 30 days, should they proceed, the public may not be invited if the million-dollar condos are sold at auction.

Updated January 29

 

Original story

Waterhouse condos head to auction block

What started as a “friendly” $20 million loan is headed to foreclosure and an auction on the courthouse steps of four Waterhouse units because the arrangement between architect Bill Atwood and Great Eastern Management’s Chuck Rotgin has become decidedly less friendly.

The legal notice of a trustee’s sale of five condominiums that recently ran in the Daily Progress caught Atwood off guard, and he told that paper the auction would not take place. But after a court hearing today, four of the five units are still scheduled to be sold January 29 in front of the Albemarle Circuit Courthouse.

One unit—the only residential condo that sold when the top floors went on the market in 2014— got a two-week reprieve in the building that houses WorldStrides headquarters and two top floors of empty units with stunning views.

Its owner, Lauren Driscoll’s HHII LLC, bought a 1,942-square-foot unit for a little more than $1 million, and that property is part of the foreclosure sale because it was one of the units securing a deed of trust for the $20.57 million loan Great Eastern’s Water Street Investments made to Atwood’s Waterhouse LLC.

Even according to court documents, the sale was unusual because most of the purchase price was held in an escrow account for three years because Driscoll wanted to make sure the building would indeed be built out.

The purchase agreement said “the seller’s attorney shall see to the release of this property from the deed of trust.” That didn’t happen and part of the arguments in court were about whether emails and oral agreements that Water Street Investments allegedly made constitute a contract.

“It was reliance on that assurance that Ms. Driscoll went ahead with the closing October 24,” said her attorney, Ed Lowry.

Attorney John Dezio represented Atwood in the sale, and he followed up with Water Street Investments to release the lien, according to Lowry. A representative of the lender asked for changes, which Dezio made, and “WSI never in fact signed it,” said Lowry. “Is that a contract?”

Water Street Investment’s attorney Jonathan Deem argued that the person asking for the changes was an administrative assistant not authorized to release Driscoll’s condo from the deed of trust.

In December, Atwood and Driscoll amended their agreement to release the escrow funds, and according to Lowry, Rotgin had no objection to the release of funds.

However, none of those funds went to Rotgin’s entities to pay off the debt. “That’s the real reason we’re here today,” said Deem.

He said Driscoll has remedies should her condo be sold at auction, such as title insurance or a claim against whoever gave her advice on buying a condo with a deed of trust.

For Lowry, the scenario that his client could sue to find relief wasn’t a good one, especially “if Waterhouse is broke,” he said.

Judge Rick Moore said he needed time to make a decision, and Deem agreed to postpone the sale of Driscoll’s unit for two weeks.

In November, Atwood transferred five units to Rotgin’s LLC for a little more than $5 million. In 2016, he handed over six units for nearly $3.3 million. Atwood, who still owns the remaining three units on the top floor, says he owes Great Eastern $13.5 million “and change.” He says interest on the loan is $6.5 million.

Atwood was not in court, but earlier he said the decision to sell the condos on the courthouse steps “was completely wrong and damages the project. It’s a very bad business decision and hurtful and it damages me.”

Rotgin was in court, and afterward, when asked to comment, he said, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

 

 

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Land banking: Mystery of Waterhouse revealed

Architect Bill Atwood says he lost “a ton” of money on Waterhouse, which has two vacant top floors. Photo by Stephen Barling

The reason prime real estate continues to sit empty on the top two floors of architect Bill Atwood’s eight-story mixed-use Water Street building is a topic of frequent speculation for downtown real estate watchers.

Were the top floor units too expensive? Is the building structurally sound? Is it the $272,000 mechanic’s lien?

No, yes and no, he tells C-VILLE Weekly. Atwood says he’s kept a low profile lately, but the garrulous architect spills the beans on the project, while wondering why there’s so much interest.

“The recession killed me,” he declares. And with nine units left, he says, “To recapture maximum value, you land bank ’em.”

More than two years ago, the condos on the top three floors with expansive views went on the market as the priciest offerings downtown at the time, with a 3,600-square-foot unit listed for $1.6 million. And then —nothing, at least to those peering up from down below.

“They were the most expensive per-square-foot units because of the debt,” Atwood says. “It wasn’t what we wanted.”

Atwood’s long and winding road in developing the former Downtown Tire site began with his purchase of it from Oliver Kuttner in 2006 for $4.5 million, and plans that included a mostly residential Waterhouse “village.” When the Board of Architectural Review nixed those plans, next up was a nine-story building with condos and underground parking.

Bad timing. The market collapsed and, along with it, his bank, Lehman Brothers.

The plans shifted in 2010 when educational travel agency WorldStrides expressed interest in moving from Pantops to downtown. “We designed it for WorldStrides because we had no bank,” says Atwood. “They became our equity.”

The city offered tax increment financing, a performance agreement similar to what it’s offered John Dewberry to finish the Landmark. For Waterhouse, after an investment of $20 million and 200 jobs, the project got a rebate on real estate taxes that Atwood says went to pay for 100 parking spaces in the Water Street Garage.

In 2011, WorldStrides moved in and now occupies around 65,000 square feet with 450 employees, says Atwood. That’s when Atwood added the eighth floor, something he’s vowed he’ll never do again.

When asked if structural problems contributed to the continued vacancies of the unfinished units, Atwood bristles. “It’s steel and concrete and it’s the best building in town. There’s nothing wrong with it. I kind of resent that question.”

Nor is the mechanic’s lien filed by Abrahamse & Company against Waterhouse LLC and HHII LLC a factor, he says. HHII principal Loren Driscoll paid more than $1 million for two units on the sixth floor in 2014.

Atwood maintains that Abrahamse did work for Driscoll and that he’s only an intermediary in that. “We did her units,” says Atwood. “She was upset about it.” He says there’s a mechanics lien on both Waterhouse and HHII, and that there’s money to pay the $272K balance in an escrow account. “She needs to release it,” he says.

Driscoll’s attorney, David Thomas, disagrees. “The suit is principally between Abrahamse and Waterhouse,” and he says there was no contract between his client and Abrahamse.

The vacant top floors continue to draw a lot of interest, says Atwood, both as business and residential units, and he sounds unsure which direction he’ll ultimately go.

He insists he envisioned Waterhouse as workforce housing. “I made a lot of mistakes,” he says. “It’s really been a struggle. I may have gone too far with the office complex.”

As for the delay in filling the building, says Atwood, “We paused. It was smart to pause.”

He also notes that he built Waterhouse around the Downtown Tire building, while across Water Street, “low historic buildings” like the Clock Shop and Escafé are slated for demolition, as well as the not-so-historic ice park. “We kept the building,” he says.

“In the end, we lost control of the cost of the building,” says Atwood. “Waterhouse is a rescue mission. We’ve got to get it out of the weeds.”

In other Water Street development news, the new home of City Market, Keith Woodard’s West2nd L-shaped complex that will house retail, office, deluxe condos and parking, was supposed to break ground this summer. “We’re looking for a way to move forward,” says Woodard, who says he’s seeking a construction company.

“The plans are pretty much good to go,” he says.