A new and fully staffed EDA Board of Directors presses forward

The commercial rental property at 506 East Main St. will be up for sale, with current Main St. Market tenants having a first right of refusal. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams.

Properties – What and where they are? What condition they are in? What to do with them? At what cost?

Processes – How to refine, retool and provide adequate redundancy to prevent a recurrence of past alleged abuses?

Accounts and assets – what we have, what we owe and what loans are necessary to carry forward; were primary topics of interest at the July monthly meeting of the legally embattled Front Royal-

Warren County Economic Development Authority Friday morning, July 26.

All seven board members, including most recent appointment Marjorie “Jorie” Martin at her first meeting for departed Vice Chairman Bruce Drummond, were present for an approximately two-hour regular meeting sandwiched around a two-and-a-half hour closed session after which several motions authorizing movement on several property repairs and/or marketing for sale were unanimously approved.

Those unanimously approved motions by Ed Daley included:

– approval of repairs to the damaged apartment rental building at 514 East Main Street and further coverage pending insurance settlement negotiations of housing displaced tenants in the nearby Quality Inn; and advertise the property for sale at $159,000;

Damaged by a tenant vehicle accident caused by failed brakes, the residential rental building at 514 E. Main St. remains vacant pending insurance company-approved repairs.

– authorization of EDA attorney Dan Whitten to give notice to the tenants of 506 East Main Street (the Main Street Market) that the property will be advertised for sale at $299,000. It was later noted that the tenants have a first right of refusal on purchase of the old Stokes Mart building they now occupy in a building needing extensive roof and HVAC, among other repairs. An amendment was added giving that tenant Ginny Lesser 30 days to exercise that first right of refusal;

– authorization for the executive director to solicit proposals and contract with an engineering firm for unspecified services at the Happy Creek Industrial Park at a cost of up to $40,000.
Board Chairman Gray Blanton raised another high-interest real estate project to his board, gesturing out of the board meeting room toward the seemingly completed or close to it on the exterior at least, 10,000 square-foot ITFederal building on the first 30-acre Royal Phoenix commercial property believed to be under development in the wake of its “sale” as a one-dollar gift in 2015.

We’d all like to know what’s going on back there in the wake of the 2015 Congressman Robert Goodlatte-fueled promise of a $40 million investment by a company (ITFederal) with a supposed $140-million federal government contract that would create 600 high-paying tech jobs here – tick, tick, tick …

“I’d like to know what’s going on out there – are we in contact with him,” Blanton asked Whitten of ITFed CEO Truc “Curt” Tran. Whitten explained that due to Tran and ITFederal being named as defendants in the $21-million EDA civil suit for return of allegedly misdirected or embezzled assets, $10 million of which went to Tran and his company according to the EDA lawsuit, contact was limited at best. However, Whitten said he would contact Tran through his legal counsel to attempt to get a status report on his intentions for the property.

Conditions on the $10-million bank loan approved by the EDA board required only that Tran spend $2 million here and have a 10,000 s.f. building constructed by the middle of 2020; and stay current on his loan payments. Whitten later reported during a highly interesting Financial Report that Tran was current on his now $42,160 monthly payments which more than cover the EDA’s monthly payment of $40,000.

In other business Ed Daley was unanimously approved to replace Drummond as board vice chairman; and then Jeff Browne was unanimously approved to replace Daley as board secretary.

The recently re-tooled EDA Board of Directors and staff at work Friday morning, July 26

Watch the EDA board efforts to right the ship of economic development in this community in the Royal Examiner video: