Supermarket News is reporting that Harris Teeter has been outbid by a private equity firm in its quest to acquire Ukrops Supermarkets. This is an interesting development, as Harris Teeter seemed a natural fit to take over the now struggling, family-run grocer.
Additionally, private equity firms are not generally known for having a gentle touch, which would add additional uncertainty for Ukrop’s employees and their communities.
Harris Teeter, the un-named private equity firm, and other stakeholders should also consider contacting the Office of Thrift Supervision to see why Q2 financial information on Ukrops’ Supermarkets was withheld from First Market Bank’s recent federal filing. Ukrops, as a holding company for First Market Bank, is required to disclose financial metrics such as earnings and debt load in quarterly filings with its banking regulator. The Q1 filing showed that Ukrops was barely profitable and operating under a staggering debt load of nearly $100 million.
Previously unpublished photograph of the original SAVE RICHMOND staff. From left to right: Andrew Beaujon, “Eagle Eyes” and Don Harrison. Not pictured and probably hiding: Ewa Beaujon.
Don here. I sat down to write a teary-eyed goodbye and to say how much I’m going to miss everybody and how it was the end of an era and that times are changing and the cow jumped over the moon… blah blah blah.
And then I realized that I’m not really going anywhere.
At any rate, it’s all true. Your humble narrator has accepted a position at Style Weekly — I’m the new Arts and Culture Editor. But it’s not all a kick and a gas. I have to give up posting here at Save Richmond.
That doesn’t mean SR is going away. This web address will live on. “Eagle Eyes” will continue to post here, and bring you his tenaciously-researched overview of Metro Richmond. Yes, he is a skeleton in a top hat (see photo above) but don’t let that shake you.
And, obviously, I’m not going to go away either. I have to assume that, if you read Save Richmond, you also read Style Weekly. If not, get thee to a big newsbox adorned with an S immediately! Or click on this spot right here. Save Richmond has been linking to Style’s excellent arts and news coverage, and discussing their reporting, for years. Now I get to work with these talented people. How cool is that?
A couple of weeks ago, when we celebrated our sixth anniversary, I explained that Save Richmond didn’t start out as a blog. And it would never have been one without the seminal snark of Andrew Beaujon and the early support of his wife Ewa Beaujon. Save Richmond has also been enhanced by the savvy financial forensics work of “Eagle Eyes” — that kid’s a keeper. Basically, all I’ve been trying to do here is to keep up with those folks.
Don here. When Eagle Eyes and I submitted our “Twenty Questions” to CenterStage earlier in the summer, I thought we were being very easy on them.
We didn’t ask about an artists endowment — there isn’t one — or the rumors that ticket sales for the CenterStage grand opening weekend have been slow. And we didn’t ask why there is so little of substance announced on the initial event schedule (BTW: Bringing in The Oak Ridge Boys is actually a good idea. In the context of a full and diverse schedule of events, that is. So where’s the rest? Or is this it?)
We didn’t ask about the parking situation, although there seems to be some problems there too. And we didn’t press too hard on how the Foundation intends to respect the history (ahem!) of the historic Richmond theatres they’ve been handed the keys to, and given considerable public subsidy to oversee and to safeguard. Perhaps, in light of recent events, we should have.
[Incidentally, it's always worth reminding people that this project is, was and will be funded by public tax dollars. So anyone who tries to tell you that CenterStage, or RPAC, or VAPAF — whatever you want to call them — should be able to do with its "history" what it wants — like a private company reworking a new sales brochure — has an awfully broad and somewhat shitty view of both history and what it means to be a leader in the public trust.]
No, we didn’t press Jeff and Jay at Capital Results PR (who officially handled our inquiries about the project — thanks guys!) about such things as the lack of an artistic director — we assumed there would be one. After all, wasn’t there a guy named Joel Katz? And didn’t he run the Carpenter Center successfully for ten years with very little city subsidy? He was fired for truth-telling too.
Why does having an artistic director — a “vision” — matter? Let’s take a look at a reputable arts venue named CenterStage — Baltimore’s CenterStage — which does not take city tax dollars and is overseen by a staff that includes a seasoned artistic director. If you want a good example closer to home, take a look at the diverse international arts programs that the director of The American Theatre in Hampton, Michael Curry, brings to Tidewater each season in a former second-run movie house (click here for the 2009-10 schedule).
Gee, let’s get even closer than that. Think of Kathy Panoff and what she accomplished in building UR’s Modlin Center.
Make no mistake, folks. This stuff matters. You can’t pass your programming and your artistic direction off to a hockey arena promoter (in this case, SMG) and expect to have a “world class performing arts center.” It just doesn’t compute.
Anyway, we promised the boys at Capital Results that we would print their official answers “as is” with a very minimum of linking and editorializing. But forgive us for pointing out facts when the answers fail to do so, and please allow us the opportunity to tell you why some of these questions might just be a wee bit important, and especially to those people who say they support this thing and want it to work.
There was also one “followup” question that we are still a little unclear about.
But you’ll read all about it… as you wade through…
And for those of you coming in late to the CenterStage / Virginia Performing Arts Center story, feel free to plunder our archives. And start asking your own questions. After all, you are paying for this particular “serious fun,” whether you like it or not.
Hilarious article by Will Jones in today’s RTD covering the feud between the Centerstage Foundation and the journalist it hired to write the project’s definitive history. It seems seeing the truth in the printed word was too much for Foundation officials.
The CenterStage Foundation killed plans to publish “Richmond CenterStage: A Dream Fulfilled” after author Roy Proctor refused to do additional research and to rewrite his draft to downplay controversies over the $73.5 million project.
“I could not possibly have adhered to those things because I would have been falsifying history on a monumental scale,” said Proctor, who retired in 2004 as an arts writer and critic for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The Foundation’s if you can’t make it happen, make it up attitude is summed up by board member Sue Fitz-Hugh who helpfully admits, “We didn’t hire him as a journalist…We hired him as an author.” Perhaps Nick Naylor is available.
You should read the final comments by Proctor twice, because they cut to the heart of this project’s history. How going about things the wrong way can poison what may have started out as a noble effort. Critics of CenterStage are not against the arts or kids or old people or sunshine, but rather how the Foundation’s leadership have comported themselves and wasted public money.
“If you had told me last summer that I had to write a book according to those rules, I would have rejected the commission out of hand,” Proctor responded in an e-mail to Erin Rodman, marketing manager for the CenterStage Foundation. Proctor provided copies of his book draft and e-mail exchanges with the foundation to The Times-Dispatch upon request.
Proctor said he supports CenterStage, and his introduction to the book said it’s a story about “renewed life.”
Other items soon to induce coffee spillage on at least one of the 400 RTDs delivered each morning to 110 Virginia Street (somebody has to keep Media General in business, ya know)…Q2 financial information on First Market Bank and Ukrops Supermarkets from the FDIC.
Pete Humes, over at Richmond Magazine’s Pop Culture Rodeo blog, has a confession to make:
This might be dangerous, but I’m going to do it anyway.
It’s not really a rant, because I’m not that angry. I wouldn’t call it a commentary, because my position isn’t very well defined. And you won’t be finding any deep background research, because it’s late and I’m lazy.
But I’ve got some things in my brain that need to get out. Either I write them down or I keep chewing them into nothing. There is no other option because my wife gets sick of hearing me talk sometimes. So you, the unfortunate few, will feel my lukewarm wrath.
My beef is with downtown. Specifically this Michael Bay-sized arts complex set to open in September. I don’t get it. I never have and I’m not sure that I ever will. To be honest, it seems silly and a bit over the top. I know that sounds blasphemous and shallow, and there are a hundred different people with a hundred different reasons who would be happy to tell me why I should feel otherwise … but that’s just how I feel.
And if Oprah taught me anything, it’s that feelings count for something.
Let’s forget for a moment where the money is coming from, who promised what and how many arts committees it takes to screw in a light bulb. That’s all crazy city politics. And I’m dumb, but I’m not dumb enough to pretend I know the first thing about city politics. There are people much smarter than me who aren’t afraid to read long documents and make phone calls who can sort that kind of stuff out. Me, I’m just the guy who wants to make fart noises in a crowded elevator.
Downtown doesn’t need high culture. Downtown needs more low culture. We need bowling alleys and blues bars and rooftop paintball. We need coffee shops and video arcades and miniature golf.
If you find me a working time machine, I promise I’ll go back in time and steal the money raised for CenterStage and spend it on go-kart tracks and outer-space theme bars. Seriously. I wish I was kidding about this, but I just created the downtown of my dreams … without even really thinking about it. How can dozens of people meet for years and raise millions and come up with just another giant building that 98 percent of Richmond will never enter?
