Cost to renovate former Uncle Buck’s more than initially thought
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Sept. 21 — The Page County Board of Supervisors took no action at Monday night’s meeting on a request to accept a $50,000 state grant and enter a lease agreement at 42 East Main Street in Luray in order to create the Page Valley Food & Visitor Hub.
The lack of a motion by the board is basically a rejection of the grant money awarded by the Governor’s Office through the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund (AFID). The money was earmarked for capital costs related to new equipment for operating a multi-use, commercial kitchen at the former Uncle Buck’s location in downtown Luray. The project was estimated to cost $93,750 to implement, according to the application, and create five to 10 new jobs over its first two years.
“Page County, Virginia faces a documented and urgent gap in agricultural and entrepreneurship infrastructure. Despite a growing tourism economy anchored by Shenandoah National Park and the Luray Caverns, the county lacks a single licensed, shared-use commercial kitchen — leaving aspiring food entrepreneurs, small-scale agricultural producers, and food truck operators without access to the compliant production space they need to enter or grow in the market,” reads the County’s “Project Description” on the grant application.
“Local farmers producing value-added goods such as jams, preserves, baked goods, and prepared foods are forced to either forgo commercial production entirely or commute to facilities in Harrisonburg or Charlottesville — taking jobs, tax revenue, and economic activity out of the county. This infrastructure gap is not incidental; it is a structure barrier that limits the growth of Page Valley’s agricultural food economy,” the County’s statement on the grant application continues.
On Monday night, supervisors didn’t disagree with the concept, but some didn’t consider it an immediate priority and questioned the real cost behind renovating the former Uncle Bucks, now owned by “The Misfits, LLC.” Page County Economic Development and Tourism Director Nina Fox told supervisors that “Mr. Hoke” offered the building at 42 East Main rent-free for the first five years of a proposed 10-year lease. Fox also acknowledged that an exploratory demolition of some walls and an analysis of total construction costs “were not favorable reports.” Potential costs at the site were said to possibly reach several hundred thousand dollars.
The “visitor center” portion of the project, which several citizens spoke to during citizen comment time, is not connected to any plans to move the current Visitors Center at the depot operated by the Luray-Page County Chamber of Commerce, according to Fox. A “mini” visitors center was proposed within the project in order to tap into $37,500 of Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) funds to pay for renovations. The application stated the funding would come from $50,000 in the AFID grant, with $43,750 in local matching funds — $37,500 in TOT and $6,250 worth of in-kind contributions (“representing County staff time devoted to project activities”.) No AFID funds were to be applied to construction, renovation, or personnel costs — just new equipment for the operation of food hub.
“In order to make it feasible…we have to tie it to a tourism-based initiative,” Fox said during Monday night’s presentation.
While still supporting the idea of a commercial kitchen, some speakers felt that too many questions were left unanswered to enter into such an agreement, at that specific location, at this time — and the supervisors agreed. There was some discussion about potentially reapplying for the grant in the future and potentially locating such a facility at the former Grove Hill Elementary School near Shenandoah.
Fox stated that the idea for the creation of a commercial kitchen came out of a public meeting and roundtable focusing on agriculture held at the Stanley Fire Hall a few years ago.
The AFID application stated the County sought to create a “commercial kitchen…offer[ing] hourly, half-day and monthly membership access to start-up food entrepreneurs, small-scale agricultural producers, caterers, and value-added goods producers — dramatically lowering the capital barrier to entry for new food businesses,” according to the application. The facility would include “a food truck commissary, and a restaurant incubator program…The commissary will bring food truck operators back into the county by providing compliant cold storage, wash bays, and staging access. The incubator program will pair kitchen access with structured business mentoring, health department compliance coaching, and test-market pop-up opportunities — building a pipeline of viable, locally-owned food enterprises.”
For more information on Page County government,
•••
RELATED ARTICLES
Has any analysis been done as to where these food trucks will be allowed to operate? On city streets, parking lots, or out of county? The designation of “mini visitor center” sounds like a sneaky way to get government money
–possibly leaving it open to fraud challenges
It was not a well thought out or transparent proposal.
Supervisors did well.