CHAT to use $500,000 grant to purchase Captain Buzzy’s or maybe not (Update)

“A key component involves the purchase of Captain Buzzy’s Beanery, whose space will be utilized for a variety of retail, training and other entrepreneurial activity.”

December 5, 2014; 11:32 AM • by Richard Hayes

Update #1 — December 5, 2014; 11:29 AM

It looks like that press release quoted yesterday might have been premature. Style Weekly is reporting that no agreement has been made.

“He has mixed emotions about selling it,” says Bob Buffington’s lawyer, Hayden Fisher. “There have been discussions about it. There have been talks about terms, but the landlord’s consent is needed and she prefers that Buzzy’s remain Buzzy’s.

A spokesman for Buffington’s landlord, the Edison Company, says no one’s contacted him about a sale. “I would say this announcement was very premature,” said a man reached at a number for the company, who declined to identify himself by name because he “doesn’t want to be the bad guy.”

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Original — December 04, 2014

Big news for residents of Church Hill and lovers of local coffee shop Captain Buzzy’s Beanery.

The Robins Foundation has awarded $500,000 to Church Hill Activities and Tutoring (CHAT) which will be used in a program to increase job training, marketable skills and employment opportunities for youth in North Church Hill.

CHAT’s Young Entrepreneurs of Richmond Project, plans to purchase of Captain Buzzy’s Beanery and use it as a community and entrepreneurial hub.

The Young Entrepreneurs of Richmond Project is a multifaceted initiative with a broad scope of elements. A key component involves the purchase of Captain Buzzy’s Beanery, whose space will be utilized for a variety of retail, training and other entrepreneurial activity. The acquisition will allow for the expansion of CHAT’s existing entrepreneur teams, which are currently involved in woodworking, urban farming and screen-printing. A second piece of the plan involves the development of a work-study program called Project First Job, a program designed to introduce participating youth to marketable job skills through paid positions with partner businesses. A third component focuses on addressing the mental and nutritional health needs of the community’s young people through education, evaluation and counseling.

In addition to funds to pay for the acquisition of the coffee shop, grant monies also will go toward the purchase of pickup trucks and a tractor to support the urban farming elements and two 14-passenger buses to transport students to small businesses as part of their entrepreneurial education. The grant also will support work stipends for participating youth as well as salaries for new staff positions.