Lee Danielson is finally back in Charlottesville, though to what degree is still up in the air. Last week, public relations firm Payne, Ross & Associates announced that the boisterous developer has teamed up with Halsey Minor, a Charlottesville native who made good in the ‘net boom of the ’90s by founding CNET, to repurchase the former Boxer Learning building from Oliver Kuttner for $4.5 million.
Danielson is no stranger to Charlottesville. A former football player from California with a multimillion dollar trust fund, he helped spark the Downtown Mall’s revitalization, with projects like the Ice Park and the Regal Theater, but largely with a brash vision of a vibrant entertainment district that he was willing to shove down city government’s throat. That and money from then partner Colin Rolph (married at the time to Landmark Communication heiress Dorothy Batten Rolph).
It may just be us, but it seems like the Boxer Learning building has switched hands more times than a joint in Lee Park. Above, a rendering of the current site plan. Below, a model of Oliver Kuttner’s aborted design.
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But Danielson’s and Rolph’s relationship broke down, ending with an acrimonious lawsuit. Danielson put together plans for a nine-story building at 200 E. Main St., getting a site plan approved in 2004 for a boutique hotel with 101 rooms, but without Rolph’s fat wallet, Danielson couldn’t get financial backing and sold to Kuttner for $3.7 million in 2006.
Kuttner, who helped develop The Terraces on the Mall, explored a few design possibilities with the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), but he seemed relieved when Danielson offered to buy back the building in February. "I think Lee Danielson’s project is a better project," Kuttner then told C-VILLE. It led to the BAR once again seeing the same plan they saw three years earlier—which they once again approved.
At the time, Danielson said that the sale should go through in May or June. With rumors of broken deals swirling, C-VILLE checked in with Kuttner in late July, but he assured us that all was well.
Now it appears questionable how much of a role Danielson will have in the project. Both he and Minor are traveling and unavailable, according to Sara Belkowitz of Payne Ross, and Belkowitz would not elaborate on the nature of their partnership. But it is Minor who will act as CEO of Minor Family Hotels, which is the LLC set up to own the building.
Belkowitz says the project will have an October groundbreaking and is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2009. Perhaps with Minor at the helm, the hotel will actually get built this time around.
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