Complete
Community
Economies

Planning for progress, implementing for success.

Services

Feasibility Studies

Adaptive Reuse Financing & Incentives

Project Oversight & Management

Community Development Capacity Building

Grant Writing & Management

Strategic Planning

Feasibility Studies

Development of financial feasibility reports for the rehabilitation of existing properties or new construction, including residential, commercial, or mixed-use.

Feasibility studies can be done on two levels of detail:

For derelict and blighted buildings, Complete Community Economies can provide a “walk through” feasibility study, which would involve a walkthrough of the building, discussion with the owners/investors and minimal zoning and market research. The resulting report will include programming recommendations and rough rehab cost estimates (accurate within about +-20%), financing options (including available incentives) and a 5 year operating proforma.
A full feasibility study can be completed on a customized basis. Elements can include Design (conceptual or architectural); cost estimates; Sources & Uses; Building operating pro forma; Business operating pro forma and overview; Market Demand Study; Zoning Assessment; Incentives Assessment; Title Search; ALTA Survey, and more detailed equipment layouts, costs and staffing recommendations, if needed.

Earl’s Glass Shop, Orange, Virginia

Complete Community Economies worked with Frazier Associates to design an adaptive reuse of a 1930s-era gas station on a major state route through Orange, VA into a community gathering space. Through consultation with the architects and client determined the highest and best use would be a “Burger Joint” serving beer and wine and focusing on local and regional ingredients and offerings served in a “treehouse” style patio overlooking a bowl shaped lawn where bands can play.

Strategic Planning

Working with revitalization organizations to assess their operations, mission, and sustainability and help identify a strategy for growth and success.

Assisting smaller localities with developing a clear vision of what they and their constituents would like to achieve over a 1-5 year period and create an accountability document to use to make sure they are on track.

Assisting localities with specific issues around housing and economic development that requires public education and input.

Town of South Boston, Virginia

Complete Community Economies worked with a new South Boston, VA Town Council and staff to create consensus around Town goals for the following two-year period and developed a checklist type document to track their success at achieving these goals.

Project Oversight & Management

Management of longer term project development and implementation for localities and non-profits, often in collaboration with each other – where they may not have local on-staff expertise, experience, or staffing.

City of Martinsville x Harvest Foundation

Complete Community Economies worked with the City of Martinsville and the Harvest Foundation to oversee a housing demand study and used the information to design a 12-home affordable housing infill project to help revitalize a neglected gateway neighborhood. We oversaw grant application and management to underwrite the site preparation and home installation. Managed bi-weekly partner meetings involving local housing agencies, local government, funders, builders, and real estate professionals.

Community Development Capacity Building

Assisting localities with contract, on-call advisory services and starting non-profits to assist with added capacity to create transformational community improvements, such as Main Street organizations.

Williamsburg Economic Development

Complete Community Economies worked with Williamsburg Economic Development to organize a Main Street organization to help build better cohesion in the Downtown area wedged between William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. This was done through significant in-person (pre-covid) and virtual interviews with local residents, building owners, business owners, and government/organizational leaders, identifying key issues, and empowering interested stakeholders to determine a direction for the newly formed non-profit. Complete Community Economies completed all corporate set up and filings and IRS paperwork to register the new organization and become a 501c3 non-profit.

Grant Writing & Management

With a decade of experience running and designing many of Virginia’s revitalization oriented incentive and grant programs, and working with many more programs at the state and federal level, Jeff Sadler has insights into which projects are best suited for which programs and what the program administrators are looking for in an application. Since 2019, Complete Community Economies has written or advised on writing the successful applications for more than $2.5 million in grant awards, and is currently involved in the applications for an additional $2 million, which will be announced in Summer of 2023.

Past & Pending Grants by CCE

Industrial Revitalization Fund: 2021, 2022, 2023 (pending)

Industrial Revitalization Fund Planning Grants: 2021, 2022, 2023

Mixed Use On Main Street: 2023 (pending)

Va Housing Demonstration Grant: 2020

Community Business Launch: 2021, 2023 (pending)

Opportunity Zone Planning Grant: 2019

Va Housing Planning Grant: 2019

USDA Rural Business Development Grant: 2023 (pending)

VEDP/DEQ Environmental Abatement Grants: 2020, 2021

Adaptive Reuse Financing & Incentives

Assisting developers, investors and localities to build a customized capital stack that addresses the issues that many projects in distressed communities face, such as poor Loan-to-Value ratios, and extensive rehabilitation and environmental abatement costs. These may include state and federal grants and incentives, developing or amending local incentives, and connecting the investors with alternative lenders.

Hotel Petersburg, Petersburg, Virginia

Hotel Petersburg is a historic rehab project restoring Petersburg’s landmark downtown luxury hotel (c 1919) to use as a destination boutique hotel. Complete Community Economies worked for the developer to design a Revolving Loan Fund for the Petersburg EDA, and assist the City in capitalizing the Fund with ARPA and a Va DHCD Industrial Revitalization Fund award. Further, Complete Community Economies assisted the city with developing a Tourism Zone incentive for large projects to help repay Revolving Loan Fund loans through a portion of the newly generated taxes from the tourism project. Worked with the Mortgage broker to stack these gap financing products into the total capital allocation and assisted with contracts.

About Complete Community Economies

Jeff Sadler formed Complete Community Economies, LLC in 2019 after viewing how industrial-based economic development, housing stock replenishment, downtown/neighborhood revitalization, and small business/entrepreneurial support are often not connected in local strategies. As a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), he focuses on all facets of downtown and smaller community growth and revitalization. His specialty is creating feasibility studies, local incentive tools, and financing stacks that support adaptive rehab projects that turn neglected buildings into community assets which complement the local and regional economic ecosystems.

Jeff has nearly two decades of experience in Main Street, historic rehabilitation, and building local entrepreneurship systems. Prior to starting Complete Community Economies, Jeff ran Virginia’s Community Revitalization Office at the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). He has spoken at several national and state conferences and is known for his forward thinking in advancing local and regional community economic development.

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Featured
Accomplishments

2022

Developed a Tourism Zone and Revolving Loan Fund for the Town of Waverly to incentivize redevelopment of the Town in general and to attract a brewery, specifically. Received $300,000 in State funding to provide initial capitalization.

2021

Assisted the Petersburg Economic Development Authority to start a Revolving Loan Fund to provide Gap Financing for projects that exceed $10 million in upfront capital costs and create a minimum of 40 jobs. Received $600,000 in State funding to provide initial capitalization.

2020

Worked with the Harvest Foundation of Martinsville/Henry County to develop the affordable housing incentive, that provided up to $12,000 per new unit reserved for and affordable to local employees at up to 120% of AMI.

2018

Led Virginia’s task force to identify and select Opportunity Zones and served as liaison between the State of Virginia and US Department of Treasury for Opportunity Zones.

Re-wrote the Industrial Revitalization Fund Program Guidelines to allow the program to better serve as an incentive for rehabilitation and reuse of blighted commercial properties.

2011-
2013

Developed the concept for and provided seed funding for targeted community business plan competitions throughout Virginia and synthesized learned best practices into what is now known as the Community Business Launch (CBL) program. CBL was the first known statewide, locally-implemented business plan competition program and has been the model for more than 30 other states’ business start-up and expansion competitions over the past decade. Since 2015, CBL programs have assisted more than 1000 entrepreneurs, resulting in more than 200 new, place-based businesses and nearly 700 new jobs.