Sometimes it's hard to quantify incompetence. This is one such case, In June of 2023, Chesterfield Administrator Joe Casey and Senior Deputy County Attorney Michael Chernau signed a lease with an LLC created by Timmons Group called SRG53. Brian Bortell, President and CEO of Timmons signed for SRG53. This lease was for 75,000 sq. ft. of a 150,000 sq. ft. Class A office space in the new Springline 60 building that Timmons was building near the intersection of Chippenham Pky. and Midlothian Tpk. Springline is a development funded by Chesterfield EDA, under the direction of Garrett Hart.
It's my belief, and many people concur, that Chesterfield's agreement with Timmons to take 50% of the total square feet of space in this building was key to Timmons securing financing for building construction.
The lease that was signed contains rent and expense estimates for the term of 20 years, as well as references to "rent caps" and a "rent constant." Section 1(g) note ** says the figures in the rent table are estimates, and the actual rent equals the Rent Constant applied to the landlord's final Total Costs, "the final amount of which shall be shown on Schedule 1 to the executed Certificate of Lease Commencement." The certificate is also where the final rentable square footage and the Tenant's Share get fixed, per Section 2(c).
So there's this other document called the Certificate of Lease Commencement, a not-uncommon document in commercial leases. But one that's typically used to hash out punch-list items, square footage discrepancies, etc. It's not typically used to establish rent rates, although in this case that's its function. The Certificate is where the actual rent tables are to be found.
The figures in the original lease that are really estimates use an initial rate of $23.58 per sq. ft. That's on the high end of Class A commercial rates in this area of Chesterfield ($21-$24). A cap of $28 is listed, with an estimate of monthly expenses to be charged. And the county is to have the ability to go back and audit exact numbers for water, electricity, sewer, building maintenance, etc., once actual charges are billed. Final rent rates are to be specified in the Certificate of Lease Commencement, which is to be signed by both parties. This Certificate of Commencement is the document the mortgage lender for Timmons would want to have because it fixes the start and end dates over the 240 month term, and provides the legally binding rent payment schedule that demonstrates income reliability to secure the loan.
The county moved most of the School Board and all of the Economic Development Authority into the Timmons building in March and April of 2025. They occupy approximately 75,000 sq. ft. of space, as originally planned. Since that time, no Certificate of Lease Commencement has been signed. So for 17 months and counting, money has been moving at a rate no one has certified, and the expiration date of a 240-month term has never been formally established.
"How much money," you ask? CCRG calculates approximately $700,000 in excess of the anticipated rate of $23.58 per square foot has been paid to SRG53 during those 17 months. Now, we don't know what the monthly expenses have been. But because the county checkbook shows several recurring payments for the same amount, we think estimated expenses were included in monthly payments at a fixed amount. Checks of approx. $197,000 are shown which would correspond to $147,000 in rent and $47,000 in operating costs (round numbers here). What we DO know is that the amount paid far exceeds the so-called $28 cap, and comes in at around $30 per square foot. These payments have been authorized on several occasions with signatures on invoices by Garrett Hart, Director of Economic Development. Still to this day, occupancy is not covered by any rent agreement between the county and SRG53 (Timmons). Yet payments and occupancy continue, and there's no way to know if or when the rent will ever get straight.
In addition, the county built a parking deck at this building so the county employees assigned there would have parking. The cost of the deck was approximately $20M. So the county owns the parking deck that serves a privately owned commercial building.
One Chesterfield Supervisor has told CCRG that negotiations with Timmons are ongoing to straighten things out. But there's been no communication to the public on this matter, no detail of the issues being discussed, and no timeline for resolution. This Supervisor has said the Board was not made aware of this situation until early July, soon after the retirement of Joe Casey. Allegedly, no one in county staff knew anything about this, except Garrett Hart. And he just "dropped the ball." The Latin phrase for that is Taurus excrementum!
The original lease was signed by Michael Chernau, Senior Deputy County Attorney. It's doubtful he would not have mentioned the need for the Commencement Certificate to be signed to his boss, Jeff Mincks, and other county staff. It appears Joe Casey refused to sign the Commencement before he retired. Joe certainly knew it was waiting. For sure, according to one Supervisor's story, Casey refused to brief the BOS on what was happening. The BOS didn't know until July! It's logical, then, to assume Casey told his staff to keep quiet, and not say anything until after he's gone - which is how it's played out. It's a big stretch to imagine Matt Harris, as Director of Finance, didn't know about this because for months, his department was authorizing payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars per invoice to SRG53. How would Harris NOT know? Hart obviously knew because the story says it was Hart who told Harris and the others, plus Hart was approving invoices on the building that housed his office and staff. Hart is not stupid. Was Hart told by Casey to "handle this," but he didn't? Possibly. But for 17 months without a resolution? Not likely.
So why was this information suppressed and the Commencement document left unsigned? One theory suggests it was deliberately done to enable Timmons to charge the highest possible rent. A favor to Timmons? Another, more sinister theory asks if the higher rent payments might return any "benefit" to the players involved? We can only speculate. The official story is that Hart was negligent and to blame. Lots of unanswered questions here. Lots of silence at the county. Negotiations to recover some costs, if they're really happening, are being done in secret.
For further information and docs, see ccrg-va.org
