Chapter 3

Friday night and Saturday morning were family time; there were just so many things that had been put off in the last ten weeks. It was fun to spend unrushed time with JJ, RJ, Sara and Takeo. It seemed they had learned so much in ten weeks.

At 1300 we were we were in the dining room with Clarence, Duke and their wives, sitting at the large table.

They were surprised when they were handed menus by the Secret Service hired waiter. ‘‘The chef will prepare anything you want from the lunch menu. What may I get for you to drink?’’ he asked.

‘‘My oh my, servants and a personal chef, you have moved up since I was here last,’’ Duke said.

‘‘Not by choice; there have been a couple new death threats. My meals have to be fixed by the Secret Service chef or prepared under his watchful eye, or even tasted by the official food taster before I can eat it. I can’t even eat things I make myself, without getting the evil eye.’’

‘‘Instead of going through all that, it’s easier just to let them fix it for me and the rest of us at the same time,’’ I said.

‘‘That’s terrible, even things you cook yourself? I could never stand for that,’’ Elva Dukes said.

‘‘It takes some getting used to,’’ I said.

We talked a few more minutes and then the lunch items started arriving. We had a good lunch.

‘‘I said this was to be a business lunch. Now that we are well fed and uncomfortable, Marcy and Lorrie have a couple things they are planning and wanted to make you aware, plus they want your thoughts,’’ I said.

‘‘JBG is making plans to develop the two parcels we have on the Island. The first parcel - the fifty acre one closest to the bridge - we are wanting to build two multistory commercial buildings,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘They are to be one hundred and ten stories tall, divided into retail, office and residential complexes, two thousand feet apart. They are to be connected by a glass enclosed tram at the second story level over a multi-arch historic looking bridge. The footprint of each tower is two hundred and fifty feet square,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘The upper levels will be restaurants on both buildings. From those restaurants you will be able see the lights of Norfolk, possibly Richmond, Washington, Philadelphia, Wilmington Delaware and New York city on a clear night,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘At one thousand four hundred and two feet, they will be the second and third tallest buildings in the United States. They will be majestic centerpieces for Queens Anne County pointing to the future. There will be over twelve million square feet of space in them.’’

‘‘There will be a medical center to serve the employees and residents in one of the buildings. There will also be helipads for both buildings,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘Each building will have its own ten story parking garage and there will be additional parking to the east side of the complex. The area to the west of the complex to the bay will be walking trails, greenery with tables and covered areas for lunch along with recreation and fountains,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘The first fifteen stories we think will be retail in each with the next fifty stories to be office space. Some of it for JBG as we have administrative offices scattered everywhere and are running out of space. We are going to consolidate much of it into one location. We are expanding and these buildings are only a small part of that expansion,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘The stories in between will be age restricted residential with one tower having reserved penthouse apartments,’’ Lorrie said.

Marcy passed out artist concepts of the grounds layout and project. It looked good; I liked it. ‘‘The other project is the two hundred acre plot. We want to turn that into a first class RV resort with a water park that the local children could use in the summer time. There is no water park on the shore except for the few small ones at the ocean beaches.’’

‘‘The RV resort would be full hookups, with a camp store, laundry and bath houses. There would be a boat ramp with a fishing and crabbing pier. The lanes would be black topped as would the RV sites with concrete pads. Trees would be planted to separate the RV sites. The amenities would be limited to registered campers,’’ Lorrie said.

‘‘My turn!” Marcy said. ‘‘The cost of the two projects is four billion dollars. I estimate that the county would collect over one hundred and fifty million annually in property taxes on these two projects. That is equal to the current county wide tax collections. The experts estimate that it could add up to forty thousand long term jobs to the county employment numbers.’’

‘‘Let me talk about sweeteners,’’ Marcy said.

‘‘JBG will grant twenty five million to the county water and sewer department to upgrade the sewer plant as soon as the projects are approved. JBG will drill a new well and pay for a new water tower wherever the experts think it needs to be placed,’’ Marcy said.

‘‘JBG will work with the state on improvements for the highway that runs south on the island behind the plot.’’

‘‘Now what we want. We want the county to waive the impact fees and let me explain why,’’ Marcy said.

‘‘As you know, the impact fees are to pay for building new schools, fire departments, police and water and sewer. JBG is paying up front for the water and sewer so the work can start immediately once the projects are approved and not have to wait on funding, possibly delaying the project to completion.’’

‘‘JBG security will supply all security for the buildings because of the risk of terrorism and as not to tie up county police resources. JBG is far better equipped to handle any terrorist threats than the local police. We have listening posts and undercover personnel in some of the worst places around the world,’’ Marcy said.

‘‘High rise buildings of this type require special fire fighter training and equipment. The volunteer system in the county does not have the equipment or the necessary training and honestly, will never have it.’’