Economic Development Authority Meeting   4/19/2022

Richie, you want to call the roll?

I guess on the recording, can we just confirm that this thing called the virtual meeting preamble that Director Long, that you read that in its entirety?

I confirm that I read the virtual meeting preamble in its entirety.

Let's see, Director Long?

Present in the city of Charlottesville.

Director Munson.

Present in beautiful downtown, Scottsville.

Director Imhoff.

Present in Albemarle County.

All right, Director Long, we have everybody's present, so we have a quorum and can proceed.

I don't know if that's what he said or not.

I like it.

Actually, it's very descriptive of what I was doing.

I can I could strike the comment if required.

They talk differently in Scottsville.

I'm not sure what was intended to be said there, but considering maybe?

I'll note that it changed.

Were there any other comments to the minutes?

Mr. DeLoria, I'll move approval.

Dave, is there anything else you want to add or anybody have any questions?

Agreement has expired and so we're still negotiating whether that's going to be extended or not.

That is correct.

Director's report, I understand J.T., you're going to be handling that today.

Well, unless Roger, I see you've joined us.

Please proceed.

Just a short and sweet director's report today.

I'm also happy to help facilitate any registrations if any directors need assistance.

J.T.

So maybe I'll just start with, are there any general questions?

I mean, you don't want to make it unbearable, but two years doesn't seem that long to me.

Yes, Director Ray.

The other thing is, whatever the duration of the lease term is, what happens after that term

Another business to move in and become operational.

Does that new business in that example is that new business also have to make these guidelines?

We have not contemplated that, but we can note that feedback.

Now, maybe if they left beforehand, they'd have to find somebody to sort of step into their shoes.

And that seems to me to be a pretty darn good boon for commercial property owners.

extend the minimum lease period?

Dave, you had your hand up?

made substantial capital improvements and did you make any concessions in your leases with that kind of a tenant?

Normally for sort of a run of the mill business, we don't do that.

Do you make a concession on the lease rate or anything of that sort, or have you had any experience with that at all?

If it was something that was specific to that business, then we would not.

That is the tenant's going to stay and also you're likely to improve a capital asset without encouraging higher lease rates.

If it's $200,000, it might be a five year lease or whatever.

So if you had a five year lease, that's $250,000 and then it slides on down from there.

But a little bit might help.

And I think that just needs to be part of the evaluation in the process.

lease freeze requirement of some sort whether we whether we inflate it you know to be fair or whatever we consider to be fair that we have some kind of requirement there because again you're looking at a situation where it's likely to be something rather than nothing right and i and i think that's that's a pretty good deal um um yeah yeah i think and and i know Kat's uh got her hand up i guess the uh the other piece that i

It might not happen, but we also need to protect and say if we are providing this help and good things happen, then there shouldn't be a windfall for somebody.

but more than a windfall problem is the problem of exacerbating another problem and that is high lease rates for commercial enterprises who are looking in vain for an affordable place.

Yeah, that's a good point.

You know, I'm wondering if this is the kind of project or grant program if we tried to target some of the areas where we know we've got sort of long standing underused or nonoccupied structures.

I think that would be really helpful to us.

Stuart, do many of those property owners have property in far flung places out of state or are they just other towns nearby?

A lot of them live in other countries.

All right.

And this is just really low on their radar screen.

People start to, you know, the CPAs ask questions, but nonetheless, I wonder if that's happening where you are.

It's common in New York.

And they're not dropping their lease rates as a result, even though the vacancies are quite numerous.

Set aside for building that and put that toward rent, for example, make that a feasible business base.

But I didn't realize, I guess, naively that we have that happening in beautiful downtown Scottsville.

We are an international center.

I mean, that really is concerning.

J.T.?

So I thought I could transition us there and see if that.

Because I think when you move into this category, you might still find some women and minority-owned businesses, but they're usually not the ones in great need compared to some of the others.

Maybe not with these funds, but that is a facility that we do not have in Albemarle County.

And then I could potentially give them a rent break or whatever over that

And you think, Don, that the property owner in that hypothetical situation might be in a better position than the tenant to undertake the change?

I mean, we obviously need some framework for people to work on, but until we see what people are gonna come up with, as long as we've got some flexibility to decide whether or not we wanna do it, I think the- Yeah, and what you could do perhaps is leave that category in as an eligible partner, but then put stricter terms on that end.

You wouldn't want to discount that opportunity.

And obviously if we require the financials and we know what's going on, I think we're just gonna have to look at it on a case by case basis.

That might address some of the comments that were made about, you know, folks from the Far East buying farms in Alamoire County.

So I think that would just be the analysis that we need to do when you're looking at the transaction.

Right.

But was there any other feedback for number three?

I think, again, it's understandable why you would target primary businesses for that simple revenue effect, but it's not always that simple, and I think we ought to consider that.

I think maybe the way to treat it is as a factor to be evaluated, sort of like the equitable considerations is this is one of the things that we consider and obviously we want to encourage primary businesses, but there may be other factors that make a different business a better choice for this particular.

based in the Seychelles or the Isle of Man or British Virgin Islands, then we know it's a automatic red flag, so.

All right, anything else?

No, unless I do want to give an opportunity to recognize Roger Johnson or Doug Walker or any of the other county executives that may be with us that would like to see clarity on any

Thank you so much.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks everybody for that.

OK, so now we need to leave this meeting and move to the Teams meeting for the closed session.

That's right.

So everybody over there.

OK.

It used to be in the chat, wasn't it?

Yeah, Director Munson, in your email, there'll be a link to join a Teams meeting.

Is that one that you just posted?

And then we'll rejoin this meeting.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

you you

I think we do.

So let me see here.

Everybody else okay?

Am I too quiet or?

There was an echo on the team's call, but he's good now.

I move that the EDA certified by recorded vote that it is the best of each director's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

Director Long?

Aye.

Aye Director Munson Aye Director Imhoff Aye Director McNaughton Aye And Director Mottola Aye That's unanimous, the motion passes.

So thank you so much for what you have done.

Thank you, Stuart.

Maybe you can send us a couple of pictures.

Yeah, I'm going to take a month to drive out to British Columbia and then July and August I'll be paddling on the inside passage between British Columbia and Alaska.

Not far from you.

Beautiful.

Your students will be less likely to get eaten by killer whales than Stuart.

The hardware river doesn't have any of those.

Thanks again.

Anything else?

I don't know how practical it is to do that, but that's just, I wanna plant that seed and we'll have to have that discussion going forward.

And I think, Rich, the Planning Commission is planning on doing the same thing, is my understanding.

So we have a couple of meetings.

Would you have like a projection screen and an audio system so that everybody wouldn't have to have some kind of a laptop connection still in person in the room or?

So I think we have capacity for that, but I'll defer to Doug on that.

So I just wanted just to add that, that Gabby up in there.

Or are you suggesting we have hybrid meetings?

It is confusing, but they're two separate categories.

So that's a consideration as well.

Well, is the expectation that our in-person meetings are not hybrid meetings or just in-person or

And that's part of what the board will be discussing in May.

Because it's, you know, it's easier to get people together for 15 minutes by Zoom than it is to try to get everybody together for an in person meeting.

That's right.

So I don't see any reason in limiting its use if we have to.

I don't know why they wouldn't want to come to an ETA meeting in person, but we could call it the beam them in Scotty provision.

Yeah.

Anything else?

Low hanging fruit is to go on and go after your all's ability if you're ill or traveling to be able to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what I understand then is with this change in the state law, Stuart is not resigning, is that right?

As long as there's no coverage in British Columbia, yeah.

Indeed.

I was going to say so far, Don and I have chimed in and we both denied his request.

I'll negotiate with you on that one.

Well, thank you, everybody.

Stay healthy.

See you.

Thank you.

Thanks.