WillowTree, Inc is leaving the City of Charlottesville and the historic Charlottesville Downtown Mall to build its headquarters in the Woolen Mills factory in Albemarle County. The project will be finished in 2019.
What does this mean??
(1). WillowTree, Inc is absolutely crushing it. WillowTree and CEO Tobias Dengel started as a company of three people 10 years ago. Today, they are a 200-person company and they expect to grow to 400-500 people within the next 5 years. That’s staggering growth! The company is also investing $20.6 million into the development of its new Albemarle County headquarters.
(2). The City of CVille just lost a major employer. There are not many companies in CVille that have 200-500 employees on their rosters.
(3). As a landlord on The Downtown Mall, this development news concerns me. We all see the WillowTree “army” of employees wearing their branded hoodies around The Mall. These folks frequently patronize The Downtown Mall restaurants, merchants and music venues. The loss of 200-500 employees PLUS their auxiliary visitors (significant others, children, friends, extended family, etc.) is a blow to The Downtown Mall ecosystem.
(4). The residents of Wollen Mills will see their property values increase because of this development news. However, they may also see their quality of life impacted as well. 200-500+ more cars/trucks will be on the roads around Wollen Mills.
(5). Did the City of CVille make an effort to keep WillowTree within the City limits? When you lose a company of this magnitude, questions must be asked of City officials who are entrusted with driving economic growth within City limits. That’s only fair.
(6). WillowTree will occupy 85,000 square feet at their new Wollen Mills headquarters. Think about that! We’re talking about a HUGE facility here.
(7). City and County officials should leverage a company like WillowTree – which is a global leader in the app development category with clients like GE, PepsiCo, Wyndham Hotels and the World Wildlife Fund – to attract other emerging companies in the “tech, mobile and social” spaces. WillowTree can be a flagship for the foundation of an “East Coast Tech Hub” in Charlottesville, Virginia. This idea is 100% feasible because we have so much talent matriculating from UVA. The concept is to keep UVa graduates in Charlottesville with well-paying jobs and a tremendous quality of life (mountains/outdoors, breweries, vineyards, restaurants, ACC sports, music, shopping). These well-paying jobs will drive growth at the micro level. This “East Coast Tech Hub” would positively impact real estate values, would help maintain today’s current low occupancy rates, will encourage a healthy economy and will positively influence various job categories associated with the “East Coast Tech Hub.”
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