Coran Capshaw and Dave Matthews Band’s MusicToday have announced that they are moving their ticketing operations from their Ivy location to the former ConAgra plant in Crozet, which Capshaw bought in early 2001. He had long sought to find a frozen-food company to occupy the space, but was unsuccessful in doing so. The company is considering moving all of their operations from their buildings in the Ivy Business Park to the unusual structure, but that is currently undecided. David Dadurka has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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I am always happy to see a local company expanding with success, but I’m disappointed that Coran was unable to locate a food processing company to occupy that space. It may be too late to matter, but there were a lot of workers that had worked at ConAgra their entire lives — having a music merchandising business in town doesn’t provide them with a job. Again, that’s hardly MusicToday’s fault, and I’m glad that they’re expanding, but I wish that they could be successful and all those former ConAgra employees could be employed doing what they were trained to do.
At least MusicToday will be a low-impact business environmentally. ConAgra was a major user of water and wastewater services, as well as being the only Albemarle County business that was on a top 25 list (at #18) of Virginia sites storing extremely hazardous chemicals.
If they move all operations there, presumably they’ll have entry-level warehouse and office jobs that local workers without specific music industry experience could get.
You’re not going to see many of these types of jobs coming back to the area (or into the U.S.), but the ConAgra folks may find a great low-wage job at Target, BestBuy or a probably future Super-Walmart!!! Now they may have to make do with $7 an hour and very little benfits, but hey, progress can’t be stopped, right?