City Council will meet Tuesday, April 16, in a business session at 7 p.m., followed by a work session. Both sessions are open to the public.
The business session will be held in the Council Chambers on the fourth floor of the Municipal Building, which is located at 427 Patton St.
The work session will be held on the same floor, but across the hall in the Council Conference Room. In work sessions, Council reviews non-routine matters that will be voted upon in future business meetings.
River City TV, the city’s government access channel, will air the business session. Watch it live on cable (Comcast channel 10 and Gamewood channel 122) or streaming on the River City TV Facebook page.
During the business session, City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to forgive a loan connected to the former Telvista call center operation in Airside Industrial Park. This step would remove a lien on the building that Telvista occupied.
PRA Group is purchasing the property to open up a debt collection center. PRA will invest $15 million and create up to 500 jobs with weighted average annual wages just over $38,400 per person.
However, the company cannot close on the property until the lien on the real estate is removed and a clear title is obtained.
During the time that the City of Danville was pursuing Telvista, it became necessary for the City to provide a 4 percent loan of $1.6 million to the company for the purchase of equipment and furnishings.
This loan was processed through the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to comply fully with regulatory restrictions regarding such loans. Telvista did locate its facility in the Airside Industrial Park in Danville, and it operated in that facility for well over a decade.
Telvista, which leased the building from the IDA, deemed it necessary, for business reasons, to close its operation in Danville during the calendar year 2018, and it negotiated a deal to abandon its lease. This arrangement included a cash payment to the IDA in the amount of $384,018 plus remaining furnishings, information technology infrastructure, power generator, furniture, etc., to be left in place and conveyed to the IDA.
The IDA still owns the property, and it still carries an active mortgage on the real estate. The IDA has paid the city close to $1.4 million in principal and interest on the loan since its inception.
City Council also is scheduled to vote on two other matters Tuesday night:
- A grant from the Virginia Department of Aviation to be used to widen a taxiway near the t-hangar buildings at Danville Regional Airport and to construct an aircraft parking area to support future hangar development.
- Appropriation of Virginia Department of Transportation money for three street improvement projects. The projects the eastbound lanes of Riverside Drive from Audubon Drive to Arnett Boulevard, the 600 block of Main Street, and South Union Street.
During the work session, City Council will review financial reports, discuss changes to the real estate tax abatement program and hear a report on options for replacing a vehicle bridge that connects Water Street to Eagle Springs Road.
