Five parcels in phase one of Vineyard Estates are under foreclosure.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Patricia Kluge and Bill Moses close out 2010 with another foreclosure in their future, this time on five lots in their 24-lot Vineyard Estates subdivision.

The parcels in Meadow Estates, phase one of the high-end gated subdivision in southern Albemarle, total 122 acres and are assessed at $6.9 million. Vineyard Estates LLC owes $8.2 million, according to a property auction notice.

Partner First Colony Corporation from North Carolina went bankrupt, a demise that precipitated the first foreclosure of the year, when the 6,600-square-foot Glen Love Cottage, the only house built in the subdivision, according to county records, went on the block in March. Kluge and Moses bought back the property, assessed at (more)

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The controversial deal has drawn the ire of State Senator Creigh Deeds.
FILE IMAGES

Any homeowner seeking a loan or a refinancing might be wise to hire Patricia Filer. If her appraisal of Biscuit Run is any indication, she has an ability to find value above and beyond what the market will bear.

Biscuit Run— a massive undeveloped neighborhood saddled with debt and trapped by an unforgiving housing market— appeared to be rescued by a year-ago deal that hinged on a mysterious appraisal. When Courteney Stuart penned her investigative cover story two months ago, she theorized that the only way the tract’s wealthy investors could have paid off their delinquent loans and retained their investment was finding an appraiser willing to value the place four times higher than one arm of the state did.

Apparently, they found such an appraiser in the form of Filer at Orange-based Piedmont Appraisal Company. A story by freelance reporter Will Goldsmith asserts that Filer valued the land at $87.7 million.

“That’s a big number,” says State Senator Creigh Deeds. “That’s just a big number.”

But as Goldsmith reports (more)

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Huguely allegedly played golf at Farmington Country Club with his dad the day that Yeardley Love died.
FILE PHOTOS BY UVA, CPD

Besides being accused of murder in the death of UVA classmate Yeardley Love, George W. Huguely V has been branded a spoiled rich kid. But according to an action taken by a local lender, the Huguely family appears to be enduring the kind of financial setbacks that have affected many property owners in the ailing American economy.

According to property and other public records, an 8.34-acre parcel of land along upscale Morgantown Road owned by a company controlled by the accused killer’s father, George W. Huguely IV, has fallen into foreclosure proceedings.

The auction, under the auspices of Charlottesville attorney Rick Carter, was slated for the steps of the Albemarle County courthouse at noon on Tuesday, December 7. According to a source, that auction was called off. The reason, says Carter, is that the land-owning company has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Purchased five years ago for $485,000 in a transaction funded by Virginia National Bank, the originally 10.34-acre property was replatted a year later with a two-acre parcel sold off as the building site. The remaining land appears to contain no house.

An early deed of trust from VNB shows indebtedness of $325,000. How much debt remained on the property at the time of the foreclosure action could not be immediately learned.

The Albemarle assessor values the tract at $333,800. The property is held by a West Virginia partnership whose general partner, and the person signing the documents, is George W. Huguely IV. The company’s legal address is a building in Bethesda, Maryland, that also serves as the headquarters for the Huguely Companies. Efforts to reach the elder Huguely were not immediately successful.

In 1993, a West Virginia firm (more)

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Developers want to build a 20-acre ‘Downtown Mall’ on the J. Bruce Barnes Lumber Company site.
PHOTO COURTESY J. BRUCE BARNES LUMBER COMAPNY

Crozet, the small village to the west, has ambitions.

Two decades ago it was known mostly for Mint Springs Valley Park and Crozet Pizza, the quirky, family-owned restaurant that was recently selected as one of the top 51 pizza parlors in the country by USA Today. Since then, however, the village with a population around 3,000 has grown in stature, welcoming the ambitious Crozet Master Plan in 2001, Starr Hill Brewery, Old Trail Village, the production of the Hollywood film Evan Almighty (which included the construction of an “ark” and visits from giraffes and elephants), various other popular eateries like Cocina del Sol, Jarman’s Gap, and the Mudhouse; the Crozet Music Festival, the Blue Ridge Shopping Center anchored by a Harris Teeter, an ACAC, and the brand-spankin’ new $10 million Crozet library soon to be built.

Charlottesville’s reputation as an attractive location over the same period, no doubt, has led to an interest in Crozet, which still remains relatively undeveloped, a new frontier that might harken back to Charlottesville’s earlier days, when UVA students weren’t even sure where the Downtown Mall was, and before we started making those number-one-places-to-live lists.

Indeed, that was the idea behind Old Trail Village, the ambitious 260-acre mixed use ‘village” with a town center, green space, a golf course, and beautiful houses nestled in a valley with spectacular views. However, while Old Trail has had some success, a drive through shows it to be (more)

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Schenk’s Branch fed into a gold fish pond on the Rock Hill property before the 250 By-pass cut through.
PHOTO COURTESY DANIEL BLUESTONE

As platoons of volunteers uncover the old bones of the Rock Hill gardens, the historic Park Street estate that’s now the overgrown back yard of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency (MACAA), also unearthed has been the property’s complex history as a genteel country estate, a unique experiment in landscape design, a segregation era school, and a victim of growth.

The restoration effort has been largely organized by former City Council candidate Bob Fenwick, who, along with other preservation-mined folks, wanted to draw attention to the property so that the City and the FHWA, the Federal Highway Administration, follow through on an agreement, according to a May 2010 memorandum, to restore the garden and add it to the park system as part of the new 250 interchange project.

The Rock Hill property in the late 1950s.
PHOTO COURTESY DANIEL BLUESTONE

“It’s important as the home of the violin playing brother of Jefferson’s master builder, James Dinsmore’s, and as (more)

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In September, Bill Moses and Patricia Kluge cut the ribbon on the science building at PVCC that bears their names. Now the winery that bears her name faces foreclosure.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

The upscale wine businesses built by Patricia Kluge are under foreclosure, according to a pending legal notice, and although this marks the second forced auction this year on a Kluge property, this one— at nearly $35 million— looms much larger and could dismantle the award-winning winery founded 11 years ago by a billionaire’s ex-wife.

The latest foreclosure notice claims a total debt of $34,785,000 and lists assets of the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards to be auctioned off, including 907 acres in southern Albemarle, 164 of which are vineyards. The sale would also include the well-known Farm Shop and tasting room, as well as offices, production buildings, six employee houses, and a 34,000-square-foot former carriage museum.

The December 8 sale takes place at noon at the vineyard office building on Grand Cru Drive in the southeastern part of the county. Another auction on December 11 in Madison would sell off 15,000 cases of Kluge Estate wine, including its 2005 New World Red and sparking wines. (The Madison sale is open only (more)

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The Martha Jefferson Sanatorium was chartered in 1903 and opened on the site the following year.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

The soon-to-vacated North Downtown campus of Martha Jefferson Hospital has been sold to the developer of the Gleason condo complex with a price— $6.5 million— that appears smaller than other downtown deals. But a pair of local investors don’t smell any sweetheart dealing.

“It does sound cheap,” says realtor Roger Voisinet. “But on the other hand, there are some daunting expenses to convert it.”

Voisinet notes that making it an assisted-living facility would probably entail the lowest conversion cost, but he wasn’t sure whether there’s a market for another one of those in town. And Developer Richard Spurzem notes that just holding such a mammoth place can chew up resources.

“It’s a huge amount of land,” says Spurzem. “You gotta (more)

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Where we once got down— Club 216— will be coming down this week.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

It’s a momentous week for architect Bill Atwood. Five years after he purchased the Water Street Downtown Tire complex of buildings, once home to familiar places like Club 216, Eloise, and Sidetracks Music, it’s all coming down this week to make way for his long-planned Waterhouse project, a $20 million, six-story mixed-use complex of offices, retail space, and apartments on top of a parking garage that will span the gap between West Water and South Streets.

“The demolition will definitely change the site,” says Atwood, “but it will become a clean palette on which to finally build the building.”

Originally, Atwood had a vision for a massive pedestrian village, complete with two nine-story towers, an underground parking structure, and a park of sorts that he hoped would “reinvent the block” by rescuing the beauty of the Lewis & Clark building from its isolated perch with a compatible neighbor along the streetscape.

Fours years and a financial crisis later, Atwood is just happy to be getting something built.

Ironically, the same economic forces that have stalled development projects across the country (more)

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A signed contract offers fresh hope that the Charlottesville Ice Park won’t have to close after all.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The owners stayed on message: it will close for business on June 3o. But in news sure to inspire hope in skaters devastated by talk of its imminent closure, the Charlottesville Ice Park has just been placed under a sales contract to an ice-minded buyer, according to listing agent Bob Kahn.

“The buyer and seller have worked exceptionally hard to save this community asset,” says Kahn, who, though noting that the contract was signed on June 22, declines to name the buyer. Kahn also stresses that a “contingent contract” is no guarantee of the Ice Park’s survival but rather “a glimmer of hope that that outcome may be achievable.”

Realtor Roger Voisinet, a hockey aficionado who earlier tried to purchase the Ice Park, says he is in contact with this buyer and is working to help raise the remaining approximately $300,000 he says the deal requires to be finalized.

“I don’t think he would have given a deposit if he didn’t think he could close,” says Voisinet of the unnamed buyer.

Ice Park owners Bruce and Roberta Williamson could not immediately be reached for comment. The Park’s website shows no public skating after June 30.

..Story developing…

Original headline: “Under contract: Ice Park buyer unleashes cash to save skating”

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The Java Depot could be yours.
PHOTO BY COURTESY THE JAVA DEPOT

Ever dreamt of owning a café in a historic train depot in the mountains of Virginia? Well, the Java Depot near Wintergreen happens to be for sale. Co-owner Nancy Kern reports that she and her husband are reluctantly offering the place up.

“It has been a dream come true and one of the most wonderful years of my life,” says Kern. But since she’s been holding down a full-time job in Charlottesville, and her husband Richard’s architecture business has been picking up, the duo are finding it hard to keep up with things at the restaurant.

Meanwhile, there’s still time to check out the place and they are still co-sponsoring the Wintergreen Performing Arts Summer Music Festival and Academy in July.

If you’re interested in talking to Kern about the particulars you can contact her at or 434-361-2324.

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Looming presence: Mayor Dave Norris at the dedication ceremony for the Mall re-bricking project last year.
FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

City officials had once hoped the Landmark Hotel would attract wealthy and sophisticated visitors to the Downtown Mall with luxurious accommodations and spectacular views of the City, but since the project was unceremoniously halted over a year ago, the unfinished structure appears to have attracted a different clientele.

Already dealing with nine months of construction on an $800,000 streetscaping project, Chas Webster, owner of The Box on Second Street SE, says that homeless people squatting in the Landmark have created another headache for his restaurant.

“They shout at people and throw beer bottles down in the street at night,” says Webster. “We’ve called the police about it a number of times.”

Webster has heard reports of flashlights and the light of a cook stove as high as the sixth floor of the 11-story structure and that construction workers on a streetscaping project have told him they’ve found bedding and camping equipment in the mornings.

“I don’t doubt his word,” says Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo. “But they don’t appear to be leaving debris behind. The only discernable debris I saw was on the first level, where I only saw a few beer bottles.”

“They’re up there all the time,” says Downtown Mall resident Steven Martin, whose top floor apartment in the Jefferson Theater affords him a (more)

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Developers Jim and Cynthia Stultz get mean in their efforts to go green, taking the first whacks at the old apartment building they own(ed) on 14th Street.
PHOTO COURTESY MARTIN HORN INC.

Demolition began Tuesday, June 8 at a 1960s-era, five-unit apartment building located near the Corner district and owned by developers Jim and Cynthia Stultz of CBS Rentals, who plan on replacing it with Charlottesville’s “greenest” apartment building, aptly named The Greenhouse. Daggett & Grigg Architects have the design honors, and Martin Horn will do the dirty work, tearing down 219 14th Street NW and creating Charlottesville’s first LEED-certified apartment building, expected to be finished in August 2011.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is an initiative created by the U.S. Green Building Council to develop standards for sustainable design and construction.

The 40,000 square-foot structure will have four stories, a basement, and on-site parking, including some underground. Most of the 28 apartments will be three-bedrooms, but there will also (more)

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The catalog for the collection of Patricia Kluge weighs in at more than 600 pages.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Even when Patricia Kluge downsizes, it’s done on a grand scale. The former billionaire’s wife is offloading the contents of her 23,538-square-foot Albemarle House, and it takes an army from Sotheby’s to move the estimated $13 million worth of merch.

Approximately 80 Sotheby’s employees are in town for what is that auction house’s largest on-site sale in 20 years. In Europe, such sales are more common, but in the States, it’s rare, say Sotheby’s staffers.

“For most of them at Sotheby’s, it’s their first on-site sale,” says Elaine Whitmire, who’s heading up the June 8-9 event for the auction house.

The week-long preview from May 31-June 7 requires at least 45-50 employees in the 45-room house at all times, says Whitmire.

“It’s a big house,” says Whitmire. “We need (more)

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The Alcove apartments on 14th Street could become Charlottesville first boutique hotel.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Charlottesville may soon get its first boutique hotel after City Council approved rehab plans that would transform the Alcove condominium complex on 14th Street into a 30-room hotel. The April 5 action clears much of the way for the owner, University Limited Partnership LLC, to launch the project.

Of course, considering the fate of the last boutique hotel that Council approved, a hulking concrete tower on the Downtown Mall that could sit unfinished for years, some might wonder if this one is really going to get built. But according to the Partnership’s Whit Graves, “The Alcove” is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of “The Landmark,” a hotel now mired in lawsuits.

“We’re very confident we’ll get this done,” says Graves, pointing out that The Alcove would rise on a much smaller scale than the 101-room, $31 million Landmark— and require a much smaller budget.

The existing structure, now a 21-unit apartment complex, began its life as 1950s motor lodge constructed of concrete block with open-air hallways typical of the era. It is located near the bustling shopping district known as the Corner.

“I think the location is one where it is likely to thrive,” says City Councilor Kristin Szakos, part of the unanimous vote favoring the project, “and I believe it is also smaller [than the Landmark] and requires less initial outlay.”

The City’s special use permit grants the hotel the right to (more)

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A remorseful Mike Comer, unaccompanied by family members, pleads guilty to five counts.
NELSONCOUNTYLIFE.COM/ALBEMARLE POLICE

Michael D. Comer, the former treasurer of the Glenmore Community Association accused of stealing $465,000, pleaded guilty to four counts of embezzlement and one count of money laundering April 13, and immediately went to jail rather than remain out on $50,000 bond until his June 30 sentencing.

He faces 120 years in prison and a $510,000 fine if he receives the maximum sentence on the five felony counts, Judge Cheryl Higgins advised Comer in Albemarle Circuit Court.

Comer, 46, disappeared for nearly a month last summer on July 1, the same day the homeowners association was readying an audit.

He wrote five checks in the fall of 2008 from (more)

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New parkland (shown dark green) will be kept wild to buffer Meadow Creek.
CITY MAP

The County’s 1,200-acre Biscuit Run has been getting all the attention lately, after its would-be developers sold it to the state for $9.8 million plus an undisclosed number of tax credits. But Albemarle is not the only place where private land is turning public. The City of Charlottesville has announced the recent acquisition of 27 acres of parkland adjacent to Meadow Creek.

“This land is not going to be playgrounds,” says Chris Gensic, parks and trails planner for the city, explaining that the heavily-wooded tracts, much of the terrain in floodplain, will instead protect the creek and help get the city-wide trail system together.

Eighteen of the recently acquired acres lie behind the Seminole Square Shopping Center, donated by Ja-Zan LLC, the real estate corporation owned by siblings Jay Jessup and Suzanne Jessup Brooks, who also operate the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Central Virginia.

The remaining land is about eight acres near Holmes Avenue. The city purchased 2.3 of those acres for $10,300, and the remaining six were (more)

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No one told Maurie Sutton her street would be no parking when she bought a lot there in 2007.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

The neighborhood already reeling from getting declared a no plow zone in December just got another unhappy surprise when residents learned that they can no longer park at the end of their cul-de-sac. Now, some residents of this south-of-downtown neighborhood say they don’t know where they’ll park.

“I have a roommate, a 23-year-old nurse who works nights,” says resident Maurie Sutton. “She’s going to have to walk through a neighborhood that isn’t safe.”

And safety isn’t the only concern at Roy’s Place, (more)

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