Hendersonville Business
Some people criticized the Henderson County commissioners seven years ago when they agreed to tax incentives of more than a quarter-million dollars a year to recruit a prospect with the code name of Big Forest.
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Green River Business
TUXEDO — Colleen Raulerson had spent weeks mulling a name for her taco shop when she had an epiphany. Her boys had done it for her.
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Flat Rock Business
The most notable thing about the tiny homes on Orchard Road is that they’re not as tiny as you might think.
“What you’re seeing on TV is what we call the tiny towable,” says Jacob Lions, director of sales of the Village at Flat Rock, a community of tiny homes on Orchard Road. “That was a different animal than what we’re doing out here, that we call park models. The tiny towable is totally mobile, it can be pulled around with a full-size pickup truck.”The development has small section of towables but is doing its real land-office business in the bigger cottage-like dwellings. Built on the Twin Ponds trailer park land, the development is about four years old and has been growing fast since new owners bought it last August. It’s closer to Dana than Flat Rock but thanks to the U.S. Postal Service the property has a Flat Rock address and the cache that goes with it.Park models are 400 square feet with 13½-foot ceilings, a bedroom on the ground floor and full size appliances. Built at Blue Ridge Log Cabins and Clayton Homes in Georgia, the homes are brought in on a trailer and set up “just like you would a mobile home,” Lions says. The difference is the tiny homes are built to residential stick-built code. Skirts made of Hardie board hide the trailer and wheels.
Sales director Jacob Lions shows a park model tiny home, which have full-size appliances and 13-foot ceilings.“We set them up as though it was permanent. We unbolt the tongue, put it underneath the house so if you ever want to move it, it’s there. People say, ‘Can I move it?’ Yeah, you can move it but you’re never going to move it.” Simple Life sells the house to the buyer and then leases the land underneath — for $550 to $650 a month, depending on location. The rent includes city water and sewer, basic cable, garbage and recycling service, lawn service, road maintenance, dog park, “a million-dollar remodeled clubhouse” with fitness and yoga rooms and outdoor pool. Bocce ball and pickleball courts are under construction.
Ninety percent pay cash
A real estate broker for 30 years, in California, Florida and here, Lions was on board when the development changed hands. The new owners kept him on and he’s just gotten busier. When a prospective buyer walks in, Lions shows him three different models — no customizing.“Somebody can come in today, write a check and we can deliver that house before the sun sets,” he says. “Ninety percent of our people pay cash.”Prices range from $99,500 to $166,000.“I’ve been here 14 months, I’ve resold nine homes, they’ve all made money,” he says. A new Highlands section next to the clubhouse and pool will have 20 lots and next month the Jacksonville Beach, Fla.-based developer is closing on 25 acres across Orchard Road for a new tiny home community.The Hamlet will “celebrate the wetlands” with a pond, walking trails, dog park and benches, Lions says. “We’re not going to build a clubhouse, pool and all of that. It’s all going to be nature oriented. We don’t want to turn this into a 300-unit community. This is a whole different community.”Who’s buying? Baby boomers, mostly, many of them single, with a dog and grown kids.“People are looking for two things,” Lions says. “They want a downsized lifestyle. They realize that we don’t need everything we needed when we were 30 and 40 years old. Live in one room at a time. The second thing they want is community. That’s what we’re really selling first here. You can be as private here as you want or you can be as social.”
Homeowner Pam McMaster has downsized four times and settled in a 40-square-foot cottage.Two residents, Pam McMasters and Elizabeth Papps, sitting on McMasters’ porch on a sunny afternoon, fall into the social camp. Both are single — like 70 percent of the residents — and dog lovers.McMasters, a women’s boutique owner from St. Petersburg, Fla., “retired on a Friday and drove up here on a Saturday.”“This was a totally new chapter,” she says. “When I got here, I had a POD delivered and the day the pod came, five people stopped, introduced themselves (and asked) could they help? It was like going back in time when neighbors knew each other, cared about each other, helped each other. That was it. I was in love with the people and the environment and the friendships.”A part-time resident from Maine, Papps first looked at a tiny towable before deciding it wasn’t realistic to drag a trailer 1,100 miles up and down I-95. She rented a park model and within a month had decided to buy.McMasters had a 2,900-square-foot house on St. Pete Beach, then a 1,800-square-foot house in downtown St. Petersburg before downsizing for what she thought would be one last time, to 1,000 square feet. She’s fine with 400 square feet.“You get furniture that’s scaled to where you’re living,” she says. “You realize how unimportant everything is.”“If you bring something new in,” Papps adds, “you take something out.”With more retirees willing to shed a lifetime of material goods, Lions forecasts a big boom in tiny homes. “This is here to stay. This not a fad,” he says. “Because the baby boom population is saying, ‘I don’t need a big house.’”
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The tiny home development, 24 Empire Lane, Flat Rock, is hosting an open house sales event 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 2018. Although the open house sales event is free and open to the public, reservations are encouraged. Several tiny homes will be open for tours and a shuttle will provide a guided look into the community’s grounds and amenities. For more information or to make a reservation call 828.707.0969 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Read Story »
Flat Rock Business
FLAT ROCK — The Village Café and Pub, a space that has served Flat Rock as a breakfast spot and sandwich shop since the early 1990s, closed on Saturday, the owners announced with a "heavy heart."
The shop at 2770 Greenville Highway operated as Dean's Deli from the early 1990s until 2013, when Shannon and Dustin Zlacki bought the business, added a beer and wine bar and renamed it the Village Café & Pub.
"We have met so many wonderful people since our arrival four and half years ago and we will truly miss you all," the couple said in a note posted on the deli's door. "To all of our regulars as we say in 'the biz,' and you know who you are, we love you. You friendships will not be forgotten but cherished.... Your support, kindness, open arms acceptance and pulling for us attitude was always felt and deeply appreciated. We have learned a great deal from our experience here and will use this wisdom in all our future endeavors. We wish you all great help and happiness!"
"I got a call from Starr that he is leasing the property that was the pub and cafe. He said he needed it for parking," Flat Rock Administrator Judy Boleman said.
The property is owned by the Duane and Margaret McKibbin Family Ltd. Partnership, owner of Henderson Oil and the Energy Mart convenience stores. It's been leased by Starr Teal, owner of Hubba Hubba Smokehouse and the the Salt and Honey brunch restaurant, which often has a line of customers out the door. Henderson Oil owner Bill McKibbin declined to comment on the lease.
A Hubba Hubba catering truck is parked at the side of the building. Teal did not immediately return a request for comment on the lease., nor did Dustin Zlacki respond to a request for more information.
Built in 1971, the 4,928-square-foot building and half-acre parcel is valued for tax purposes at $156,000.
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Henderson County Business
A food truck that was out of compliance with city rules may result in a rewrite of Hendersonville’s zoning code.
The Planning Board last week recommended that the City Council add mobile food vendors as a permitted use in five commercial zones in the city — highway mixed use, central mixed use, C-3 highway business, C-2 secondary business and I-1 industrial. Property owner Mark Searcy applied for a permit for a food truck to operate on his vacant lot at 2745 Chimney Rock Road. City planners then opted to create a new zoning category different from restaurants and special event food vendors. Using model food truck rules from Charlotte, city planners presented the proposed changes to the advisory board last week. Planning Board members made some minor tweaks before sending the changes on to the City Council, which takes them up on April 5.The ordinance would require food vendors to obtain a zoning compliance permit, valid for one year and renewable. There would be no limit on the number of food trucks on a parcel as long as they were 20 feet from one another and complied with setback rules. The rules prohibit operators to dump waste, grease or wastewater into the city sewer system or stormwater drains. The food trucks would have to be at least 500 feet from any restaurant and 100 feet from a house or residential zone. They could have one wall sign no larger than 32 square feet plus an A-frame sign of 8 square feet. They may not encroach on any street, sidewalk or right of way. They could operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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Hendersonville Business
Eighteen months ago, at the close of its 2015-16 fiscal year, Pardee Hospital reported a $15 million loss. Last month, the hospital’s finance committee reported that January revenue of $62.4 million set a single month record for overall income and that Pardee and its physician practices had achieved a strong first half of the current fiscal year.
Pardee UNC Health Care’s new heart center, its new cancer center, urgent care clinics and a spike in flu cases all contributed to a financial resurgence. Pardee CEO Jay Kirby told the hospital Board of Directors in November 2016 that investments made in 2015 and 2016 would pay off in the months ahead.Here is the Lightning’s interview with Kirby on the financial picture.
How has Pardee rebounded from the loss 18 months ago to much better financial position today?
“We are growing in a number of areas. Orthopedics. Southeastern Sports Medicine. We upgraded the operating room and increased access. Cardiac catheter volume is up 130 percent. We’ve always been strong there, and it’s good to see continued growth. We’ve had great growth in cardiology and then oncology. Our radiation oncology and medical oncologists are as busy as they’ve ever been. Those three service lines drive a lot of our business. We had a high-spike flu season, which increased our volumes in urgent care, in ER and throughout the house. We had days where we normally see 75 or 80 in our urgent care. We would see 120 to 125. It was a very steep spike this year, whereas in the past it was a long rainbow bell curve. Clearly, it’s a very busy time.”
In October 2016 Pardee started Pardee Cardiology Associates. How has that gone?
“Really, quite frankly being able to get folks into the cardiologist in 24 to 48 hours instead of having to wait four to six weeks has really helped us take off. … When we started this, we were doing about 80 caths a year. We’re on target this year to do 320. We’ve had patients show up in our ER that are having active heart attacks. During the daytime when we have Dr. Balcells and Dr. Das, we can move them straight from the ER directly into our cath lab and unblock it without having to have an ambulance ride.”
How is Pardee situated to serve new residents?
Jay Kirby “With so many people come here to retire, so many people living longer, you better do three things well in a community like this. You better have orthopedists to take care of their hips and their knees, you better have a cardiologist to deal with their cardiovascular system and you better have oncology because as we age the incidence and prevalence of cancer goes up as well. As our community grows and we expand schools and roundabouts and parkways and power plants, our hospital has to grow too.”
The hospital invested heavily in 2016 in Epic, the computer network, and Carolina Values, a UNC Health Care project. How did that work?
“UNC Health Care Pardee and all hospitals engaged a consultant to identify ways to cut duplication and waste, save money in buying supplies systemwide, share resources, combine back office functions. Carolina Values was a great investment in improving our operations. If you look at our revenue cycle, our days in AR (accounts receivable) is at an all-time low. Our gross revenue on a monthly basis is at an all-time high.”
After Pardee lost $15 million in the fiscal year 2015-16, you told the board that investment in Carolina Value, Epic, hiring new physicians would pay off in the long run. That might have sounded like spin at the time but you turned out to be right.
“I would say lucky. I would tell you there’s no special recipe. If you recruit highly qualified, well-trained doctors and give them the tools and resources and get out of the way, this is what you get. The success you’re seeing today, bringing physicians, such as radiation oncologists, vascular surgeons, general surgeons, expanding primary care, opening new urgent care, creating a cancer center that’s a destination, and then giving them tools such as Epic to talk together to manage care. It’s no secret sauce. We spent a lot of money in 2015, on Epic, on Carolina Value, on 24 new providers. What you’re seeing today is the fruit of those investments. I’m just fortunate that the board and the commissioners had the patience to go through that time but more importantly had the foresight to make those investments.”
You put a lot of emphasis on improving productivity at the urgent care centers.
“Used to be, not just Pardee, but hospitals across America had core competencies in how to run ERs. So hospitals relied on our ER group to run our urgent cares and they ran them — guest what? — just like an ERs. We don’t need to run them like ERs. We need to run them like physician practices that create a lot of increased efficiencies. We created a physician and P.A. model. (The medical personnel are) not all physicians and they’re not all ER physicians. The real benefit there is the fact that we will see 46,000 people in two urgent cares (in Hendersonville and Fletcher). That’s 46,000 people that might have ended up in our ER or someone else’s ER. We’re getting ready to open one up in Mills River (in June) and if that goes well we’ll be looking for other sites as well. Because people want accessible, affordable, convenient care and that’s what those urgent cares do.”
Any plans for the property Pardee bought across the road?
“No, we’re keeping our powder dry on that.”
Did Pardee see any patient revenue from the Mission-Blue Cross Blue Shield standoff?
“Sure, we saw a short-term blip. That was an unfortunate situation all the way around. … As unfortunate as it was for all involved, I do think it introduced Pardee to people as an alternative. I don’t believe people are coming here for their primary care. But it did bring some folks from Hendersonville to Pardee who would not have come in the past and I think we’ve held on to a little bit of that.”
Is the positive trend for revenue continuing?
“Average daily revenue continues to grow. In our community because we have the seasonality, our busiest time of year is this time of year, as people become more active, as people come back to Western North Carolina when they live other places. The second half of this year will be more profitable than the first half of this year.”
What’s the next big project?
Continued growth and development of our cardiovascular program. We want to be able to bring advanced care closer to not just Henderson County but to our region and that includes Transylvania, Polk and Rutherford counties and that means round-the-clock stent service where folks will not have to travel for care. We want to grow into our investment in those areas.
Do you see another wave of health care reform that will change the landscape again?
“Who knows what’s going to come out of Washington or Raleigh. But I can tell you that people are going to continue to get sick, people are going to continue to need care and Pardee hospital’s going to be there to provide it. Sixty-eight to 70 percent of the dollars we put in First Citizens Bank over there comes from the federal government.”
Anything else?
“Two things that are really exciting is we continue to expand access to primary care. Dr. (David) Ellis (chief medical officer) and his team have added four providers to Laurel Park, one to Etowah and more to Fletcher. Second, we’ve all heard that Wingate is going to expand their P.A. program, to 20 I think it is. We’re expanding our family practice residency with Blue Ridge Community Health Care up to five a year, so we’ll have 15. Pardee Surgical Associates is now training second and fourth year general surgery residents here through MAHEC and we’re also training four psychiatrists. So MAHEC, UNC, Wingate have all recognized that we’ve got quality medical staff, we’ve got great outcomes. This is where they’re bringing their students to train. We’re helping grow workforce. We’re a whole lot more than just a little hospital.”
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Henderson County Business
Pardee UNC Health Care will host a certified nursing assistant job fair on Wednesday, March 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the hospital’s Orientation Room, at 800 N. Justice Street. Pardee is offering sign-on bonuses of up to $3,000 for qualified candidates.
Interviews will be held onsite. For more information, contact Pardee Human Resources at 828-696-4209. Pardee UNC Health Care is a not-for-profit community hospital founded in 1953 and is managed by UNC Health Care. For more information, visit www.pardeehospital.org.
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Hendersonville Business
A Local Vendor Celebration at Fresh Market on Saturday is featuring some 20 dairies, coffee roasters, breweries and sweets makers offering samples and a special giveaway.
Vendors participating are Mills River Creamery, Burntshirt Vineyards, Ms. Mary’s, Poppy Popcorn, Boar and Castle, Little Black Dressing, West End Coffee, Dynamite Roasters, Apple Wedge Cider, French Broad River Brewery, Sierra Nevada, Wicked Weed, New Belgium, High Wire Brewing, Boojum Brewing, Mountain Foods, Carolina Bison and Postre Caramels.
The event at the supermarket at 223 Greenville Highway is from noon to 4 p.m.
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Mills River Business
The top executive of Raumedic is moving from Germany to Mills River, where he will oversee a new marketing push in the medical technology market.
Martin Bayer, until recently sole board member of Raumedic AG, was appointed chairman of the entire group in February. He moved his office to North America, where he will be serving as president and CEO of Raumedic Inc. in Mills River. After completing the construction of an administration and production building in North Carolina, the company with Bavarian roots now is looking to quickly establish itself on the world’s largest medical technology market, while pursuing a globally consistent market cultivation strategy.
“I look forward to devoting myself to this task, and being on site will provide me with the best conditions,” Bayer, 56, said in a news release. Under Bayer’s leadership the medical technology company has more than doubled its sales the past 10 years, growing the number of employees from 360 to over 700 worldwide. Given this growth and his new office in the U.S., Bayer points out how crucial it is that collaboration with his colleagues in Germany continues to run smoothly. To ensure this, regular video conferences with the Helmbrechts headquarters have already been scheduled.
Additionally, Martin Schenkel, a seasoned member of management, was newly appointed as member of the board of Raumedic AG. As chief operating officer, Schenkel is responsible for production at all Raumedic sites. In his new role, he is now also the man in charge of the company headquarters, reporting to Bayer. In the process of reorganization, the management team of Raumedic AG will be further expanded in the next months. Read Story »
