The Paradyme Shift
Step into the evolving world of real estate investment with "The Paradyme Shift," a podcast hosted by Ryan Garland, the visionary founder and Chairman of Paradyme. This show is your gateway to uncovering the strategies, trends, and success stories that redefine the real estate landscape today.
On "The Paradyme Shift," each episode takes you behind the scenes of Paradyme's groundbreaking approach to real estate investment. Ryan Garland, alongside industry leaders, dives into the intricacies of Paradyme's holistic model—covering everything from direct lending and strategic investments to hands-on development. Discover how Paradyme's innovative crowdfunding platform and investment management software are not just tools but game-changers that are reshaping real estate by bridging housing gaps and nurturing community-driven projects.
Tune in to "The Paradyme Shift" to explore how Paradyme consistently delivers exceptional financial returns while positively impacting communities. This podcast is more than just about investing—it's about leading the charge in real estate innovation. Join us to stay ahead of the curve, gain exclusive insights, and become part of a community where expertise meets transformative ideas in real estate.
The Paradyme Shift
Building Lake Havasu’s Next Chapter: Infrastructure, Growth & Leadership | David Diaz E54
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In this episode of The Paradyme Shift, Ryan Garland sits down with Lake Havasu City Vice Mayor David Diaz for a grounded conversation about responsible growth, infrastructure, and the decisions shaping the city’s next chapter. Diaz shares his path from private-sector leadership and Planning and Zoning service to a narrow election loss, a two-year comeback campaign, and a landslide City Council victory.
Together, they examine Lake Havasu real estate development, the second island bridge, roads and water systems, airport economics, north-side expansion, attainable housing, steel construction, insurance, shoreline access, health care, and the role of private capital. Ryan brings a developer and construction-lender perspective to the conversation, translating civic decisions into project feasibility, replacement cost, development timing, and long-term value.
For investors, builders, business owners, and residents, this episode offers a rare look at how infrastructure, public leadership, real estate, and economic development intersect—and why trust, facts, and follow-through matter as much as vision.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, Ryan Garland here. Thank you for joining us today. As always, I'm honored to have David Diaz, which is the vice mayor of um of Le Cabasu. And if you guys were watching some of the other uh podcasts prior to this or even listening, you guys know that we uh we had two other guests that were on our podcast, which was uh Dave Johnson, that was the kind of the runner-up, and then you had Kal Sheehee, which is our existing mayor, and that was kind of a and I actually really enjoyed the experience.
SPEAKER_00It's a bit both good podcasts, yeah. Yeah, a lot of information off of both of them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I wanted to bring David on. We actually got a chance to spend some time together at a little party out here in town. And you know, I I really respect his background, and I want everyone to kind of get to know more about him. So I'm gonna want I want you to share a little bit about your background, if you don't mind how you got here. I mean, obviously I write up on you and spent some time with it.
SPEAKER_00Sure, sure. Uh I'll start from the beginning. So back in 1979, my uh parents uh built uh not built, but their their friends built a house here, bought some land off of Al Avalon and um Palo Verde, bought a house, bought some land, built a house, and then about five years later, my dad bought the land right next to him and built a house. So we were we've been coming out here since the 79. I've seen all the growth and all the stuff that wasn't here before that's here now.
SPEAKER_01And you know what's funny is it doesn't that's like it seems like that's the way it goes. Yeah. Your your grandparents come out, and your parents come out and build something next to you, and you just gotta spend some time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we came, we were coming on a regular basis. And the reason I know it was 1979, because that's when my daughter was born. So I was I knew I I brought her, she was like a year old. I brought her out here. And we my kids learned how to water ski on this lake, how to jet ski on this lake, took them fishing off of site six, all that stuff. Uh, probably 15, 17 years ago, I bought a house out here, and then I retired in 2018, and we were coming to the house all the time. We've we were spending more time here than we were in in uh Honeyson Beach, California, where we were living. And then my wife was working remotely out here all the time. One day I said, Why are you still working? And she goes, Yeah, you're probably right. So she called her employer and said, You know, I'm giving a two-week notice, we're gonna, I'm gonna retire. And then we actually we had a house in the Hunnington Harbor area in Honeyson Beach. So we called our realtor and said, Um, put our house up for sale,
From Family Lake Trips To Full Time
SPEAKER_00we're gonna we're gonna sell it. She called us a couple days later and said, You have a key anywhere? I said, Yeah, we have a lockbox. I gave her the combination. And she actually sold our house while we were we were still here. So in two-week period, we decided we're she was gonna retire. We decided we're gonna sell her house, and then we had now we had to find movers, you know. So next thing you know, you're on the city council. Oh my god. That all yeah, yeah, no, I'll tell you about that. That all happened like in 2000, by 2000, end of 2018, we were here full time, but we were out already here full time anyways, just kind of officially here full time. And then I one day my wife says, Um, you know, there's a Republican men's club here. They meet for breakfast every Tuesday at Mackay Cafe. She saw it in the newspaper. And I, oh maybe I'll go one day. So a couple couple of weeks went by. You know, I'm gonna go check out that men's club. Well, I go to the club, I end up joining. Two weeks later, I'm the treasurer. The next year I'm the president. That's how it happens here. That's how it happens here in Lake Havens.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's also because of your background, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, correct. And and funny you said that. So um council member uh Nancy Campbell, uh, she's a member of the club, and she says, you know, uh, I really like how you carry yourself in front of the group, the way you speak, you know that you know the issues. I need to get you on a board or committee. Would you be interested in planning zoning? I go, yeah, maybe maybe so. So I cited it. I called her back and said, Yeah, I'd be interested in that. So uh about a month later, they had a couple openings on plan and zoning. So I was uh appointed, you get appointed to that. So a council member has to make a motion, someone makes a second, and they vote on it. You have to get up there and give like a five-minute speech on your background and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_00So did that, got on plan and zoning. A year later, I'm the chairman of the plan and zoning commission. So I did that for a couple years, and then um people were telling me we like what you what you say up there, we like your how the your your thought process, how the questions you ask, you should run for city council. So I thought about it, thought so and finally in 2022 I ran for city council. Um I uh was pretty well known in the in the community that I thought I thought I was, and I and I missed it by about 350 votes. Not bad for a first-time running game. But so I the very next day, like we just had here on on so we had the election on Tuesday, on Wednesday, we kind of knew what the results are. So I called people up and I had a lot of support and a lot of signs all over town. I said, People, if you have a David Diaz for Lake Havasson City Council sign, don't throw it away, put it in a nice clean spot in your garage, cover it up, keep it nice, because I'm running again in two years. And people love that. They I got started getting text. Thank you for saying what you're gonna do in two years. So for the next two years, I basically campaigned all of 2023 and all of 24, and in 2024, in July, I got elected by a landslide. Ah, cry.
SPEAKER_01So doesn't surprise me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I ran and then and I, but I also spread my wings. I got involved with the Eagles, the Elks, the Chamber of Commerce, the all the different clubs in town. We do a lot for the veterans. My wife and I run the Mojave Military Museum. So when you go go into the courthouse right past the um security to the right, you'll see this big, big wall, 30-foot wall, it may be 12 foot long, and that's all that's all uh military museum stuff. People that have donated stuff from the Havasu. Wow. So we got involved with that. The veterans love it.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00A lot of the because we have the veterans treatment court there. So Judge K, who's our magistrate, he says he gets the veterans that are coming in for because they have some they've had some uh legal issues, they love it because they go in there and they kind of it kind of sets them straight. They see, God, there's World War I, World War II, there's Korean War, there's Vietnam, there's uh all this stuff, and they and they kind of kind of set some on the right path. And he tells them, go out there and look what's that. That's what you guys should be celebrating, not get into trouble with the law. So it's pretty cool. So we do that. And now so I've been on council now for about a a year and eight months, and people want, oh, you should run for mayor. I said, not this time. Cal cal mentioned about a year and a half ago, maybe almost two years, he was gonna run for mayor, so I'm not gonna challenge him. Yeah, but probably the next time he says it's gonna be a four-year term after he'll he'll have four more years, and if uh he's not gonna run again, then I'll probably run for mayor.
SPEAKER_01Good for you. I think you'll I think you'll have a really good chance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I got a I got a ton of support in town. And yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, obviously some of my employees, their families know you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, they do. They do.
SPEAKER_01But you know, just to kind of back up a little bit, it kind of sounds like the standard, you know, fell in love with the place, came out here, raised your family coming out here. Same thing with me, my family, my old, you know, as far as my father. I uh I remember kind of learning how to single ski behind a jet boat getting sprayed in the face.
SPEAKER_00I learned how to single ski in this little place by needles. Um what do they call it? I forget what they call it. Something springs. But they got it in a springs? No, no, no, you're it's uh it's not by needles. It's uh I forget forget the name of the place now. Just I'll I'll think of it. But I single skied there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then I and then I remember single skiing on Lake Elsinore. Oh, but Elsinore? Yeah, this is back in 1968. When I was like I was like 10 years old. So we were single, yeah, we were single ski, and then you got to the double skis, and and yeah, it's fun. And then the jet skis came in and out, you know. So you just you just evolve.
SPEAKER_01I raised my family in and Temecula. So yeah. When and this was when you know Elsinore was a little cleaner, you know, and the boat was a lot, you know, it was filled up a lot more. And but we used to kind of go out there and spend a lot of time together. And uh, we did a lot, I brought my boat out there, I had a smaller boat at the time, yeah. Like a little wake boy boat, you know. I really enjoyed that, but then I just go back and forth from there to here, and I just fell in love without here. I just couldn't, I couldn't leave.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I always loved the desert. We had an option. We had a cast, I said we had cabs we had at one point we had four cabins in Big Bear, and we thought, Do you want to retire up in Big Bear? And then every winter after the snow melts, you got to repair something. You gotta repair a vent that got or a fence that the snow got, you know. I said, I don't like the cold. I like a little bit to ski, but I'd rather like I like the I like the heat in the desert.
SPEAKER_01So you know what's crazy? So remember, was it a few months back, three, four months ago? Uh there was that huge freeze that came from it was a storm that came in uh from the Gulf and it came up through Texas and up to Nashville and it's freeze and everything, right? Up all the way to the northeast.
SPEAKER_00The power lines and everything. All that trees were cracking. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The amount of people that I that came in on their you know, fifth wheels and their RVs and we're all kind of running for they did you see how many units went into escrow for like during that time? So the snowbird world is getting bigger and bigger here for sure. Oh, yeah. It's a it's kind of impressive. And I uh I think I said that on the last podcast, but that's some data that I've been really following. And and I think that's just what happens. People come out here and they just fall in love with the recreational lifestyle, but they also see that how much bang you get for your buck here, you know, and then and at the same time you're amongst friends. Yeah, and once you can have that, you're in.
SPEAKER_00And then if you want to get out of the hustle and bustle of the big city, I always laugh when people start complaining about the traffic and habits who said, let me have you come to Los Angeles and we'll go 30 miles in three hours. So this is nothing. But just getting back to your story about the snowbirds, we were sitting at a local restaurant um about a year ago, and there was a couple that was there at another table next to us, and and I guess they had a friends, friends of their couple, and they were from Wisconsin. And the guy's literally on the phone, and he could hear he's talking to loud, I could hear what he was saying. He's talking to his, he called his son, I guess, or his or his or his son's wife in Wisconsin, said, We came out here, we fell in love with it, we're gonna sell our house, move, we're moving out here full time. Because they were retired, we're moving out here full time, and I could hear him like, What? So they so I heard that conversation happened. We we came out here for the weekend, we love it. We're gonna sell the house and come out here full-time.
SPEAKER_01So it's crazy. And then all the way you've all the way down to like, you know, how many people want to start their retirement process or to buy a second house here for now, you know. But that's been kind of the common theme of conversations for me and my clients is how many people are just they love the place, they want to have a second home here, or they're like preparing for retirement.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're fully retired and what in Arizona state state taxes are low, 2.5%.
Joining Boards Then Winning Council
SPEAKER_00Can't beat that. They take care of veterans. Uh no, you know, so yeah, that's it's a it's a good place to be. Yeah, I like it. And and it's close enough to California. All my grandkids and my kids are all in California, they have their jobs and their houses over there in their careers. Get in my truck and it's you know, it's three hours, three and a half hour hour ride.
SPEAKER_01So you know, my so I don't know, I don't think I share this very often, but my oldest son, he's a D1 baseball player, 3.9 GPA. I heard you're talking about that. Yeah, he's a little stuff. One of my like, you know, my greatest accomplishments, if you will. He um, you know, he came out, he's doing his last uh year of school here, uh high school, but he's doing it online. But he's he's playing for two travel teams, and they go, they do they play a lot in California, so all over SoCal, and then they play a lot in Vegas and Phoenix. So he's kind of like right in the middle.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So he's now taking stuff. He's like, I'm going to Vegas. So right now he just went to California because he's got a showcase on Saturday. He had a he just got offered to play at uh Pepperdine for a showcase of Pepperdine. I think it's on the 14th. So he's just he's all over the place, man.
SPEAKER_00So you're right at my wheelhouse, you don't even know it. Uh-oh. So I was uh I was the president of Anaheim Pony Baseball for a few years, and then we my buddy and I started a travel ball team, and then uh we did all the tournaments here over in Phoenix in in Vegas, uh, and then we also did uh Cooperstown a couple of times. Yeah. And then there's two players I had since they were God, they my my son's 30, 38, so they're these guys are the same age. So when they were nine and ten, that's called it's called um Mustang baseball. Um I coached them and they became I follow I followed their careers all through high school, the local there and in uh in um California. They still call me coach to this day when I see them. Two they both played uh uh pro ball. So one of one of them is Chris Tillman, he played for the Baltimore Orioles, uh big left-handed pitcher. Another one just retired, uh Joe Kelly. Yeah. Sometimes you know Joe Kelly.
SPEAKER_01He played for St.
SPEAKER_00Louis, he was a second baseman and a pitcher, and then he would then he played for I think he played for Boston for a little bit, but then he ended up at the Dodgers. And um, yeah, he's a he's a fiery little guy.
SPEAKER_01So believe it or not, I actually know Joe rather well. So one of his wife's mother worked for me for and I've known her for 15 years. And so, you know, when they would go and travel for baseball, what have you, she would always get me tickets to take Shane because he was you know my oldest son, because he was so we'd always go in the back, and then when they do batting practice and all that stuff. So Joe would always take us back in and spend time with the channel.
SPEAKER_00And there's certain kids you can see when they're even when they're that young, this guy's got some talent, and he threw the ball super fast. And his his dad played football at San Diego State, uh, Joe Kelly Sr. Yep. Um, but uh he just got hired as the uh I think he's the assistant or the pitching coach. He went to Corona Corona Centennial High School. Yeah. Corona.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 15th freeway there.
SPEAKER_00So I saw I saw I saw something on on YouTube about it. Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. They're back here. I know they were traveling home. They've been all over the place. But yeah, Joe's Joe's a great guy. His family's, I think they have three boys.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah, he's got three sons now.
SPEAKER_01I think they're I think the youngest is probably seven or eight.
SPEAKER_00I think he went to UC Riverside. He did. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's that's it. When you were talking to uh either Dave or Cal about it,
Infrastructure Before New Development
SPEAKER_00I go, Oh, I I like that.
SPEAKER_01I love it. Yeah. So all right, let's get in uh some additional meat and potatoes here in regards to just kind of the city. Let's talk about uh just your overall vision. You know, what what do you think is the most needed for change here? I know that was kind of a load of questions.
SPEAKER_00No, no, it's it's good. So one of the biggest things, and and it came out a lot during this election, is people are saying that we need to make sure we have the infrastructure in place before we continue building. I'll give you an example. So the uh the 91 acres on the island. Um I know we're gonna have growth. We're a young city. We just you know we were incorporated in 1978. So we're a young city. Um the I voted no on that, but not because I'm against that development. I just want the infrastructure to be in because we have to build all the water and sewer infrastructure. We have the second bridge. That that London Bridge is not meant to have all that traffic it has going on it. The developer at the time, um or the the owner of that who purchased that land, his his lawyer who was representing him said that he wanted to um be a good steward of of us approving this. So he said they were gonna wait until that bridge was almost done. So we're in a good spot now because that we just finally it's like been hurting cats. People said we got that money in 2023 from the state legislature, $35.5 million. Uh the money has to be used for the second bridge because it was it was given to us as a safety access bridge on and off the off the island.
SPEAKER_01So the location of that bridge is over on the Windsor side, correct? Yes, going to Crazy Horse to Windsor?
SPEAKER_00It's basically uh if you look at uh London Bridge Road and you know you know where Habitburger is at? So in that line right there. So you so from London Bridge Road in that area right there, going over um Windsor and then going over the left side of Crazy Horse and dropping on.
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_00But we have to we've been dealing with the Coast Guard, who's the number one law enforcement agency on the on the lake. Uh BLM, Arizona State Parks, Arizona State Trust, um ADOT. So it's been like herding cats. Oh, yeah. So we were we've been we've been keeping it. Army Corps of Engineers, all of that. So people think, God, is you got that money three years ago. What are you guys bragging your feet for? There's a lot of stuff to go on. But we kind of got a curveball thrown at us about two months ago at a city council meeting. We were told that when we got an update on the bridge, we were told there was going to be a seven to eight month delay. And I was not happy to hear that. So I started talking to our set city manager, and he gave me the reasoning why, but because he was just he was just relaying what he was told from from the powers that be. So I called, no, talking about knowing our relationships and working with our state legislatures. I called Leo Biasucci, who's our state representative. I said, Um, I know your office is right down the hallway from these guys, you know, or in the same building. So so can you find out? We're getting told seven, eight months. And uh I'm told it's the Coast Guard. So he goes down there and talks to the Coast Guard, and they said, No, it's not us, it's the Arizona State Parks. So I relayed that message back to uh to our city manager. He says, No, no, no, we're good with state parks, it's the Coast Guard. So I finally called Leo and said, Look, this has been going on too long. We're talking about a seven to eighth month delay. Leo was not happy to hear that. I said, Why don't we just get a Zoom meeting? Get all the guys in the room via Zoom, and we did. And within 45 minutes, we had it all figured out.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00So it was it was the Coast Guard, yeah, and uh to his credit, um he there were some things he thought he was still waiting for from us, but he didn't he hadn't opened his email since the government was shut down. The email was just sitting there in the inbox. Now his office is in California, and the process, uh, the waiting period to get once you get we get this information to him to get the proper permitting does take about seven, eight months in California. So that's what he was telling us. So we said, no, it it we said in Arizona it's only 45 days. We we get rid of all that extra red tape.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00So we're back on track. We're gonna we're gonna get uh we'll be a hundred percent permitted for the bridge probably in uh August. Cool. That's a big deal. And then uh we're gonna break ground in October, September, which is great. Awesome. And then we'll have it's at an 18 month to a 20-month build.
SPEAKER_01So just for infrastructure, though, right?
SPEAKER_00That's no, just a bridge. The bridge will be done, completely done. All the infrastructure, all everything will be done in 18 to 20 months.
SPEAKER_01That's not bad at all. No, no, not at all.
SPEAKER_00And we have we got a really good uh a bridge uh contractor that's experienced in those, and we have uh gonna be a lot of I's on this thing, so we've tried to make sure that everything's done properly. And they and they will, they will. Um and ADOS involved too, so you know you get you have to make sure all your T's are crossed, I's are dotted. And then we just broke ground on fire station number seven. I saw that. Which is a big one. That means that congratulations. That was actually approved in 2005. So it's just been 21 years, right? So but uh and as the longer you wait, the more things get expensive. But what we had it's a nine million dollar project, and the um we have this thing called a CMAR contract management at risk that the the contractor that we hire, we have already hired a contractor, cannot go over that price. If it happened to go over, it's it's on their document. Like a GMAX contract, yeah. Good for you guys. So infrastructure is the big thing. It was the big thing in the elect in the election. Um you you and and and we you heard uh Michelle Lynn talk about it, where um and she's she has a 12-year track record of of asking the right questions and making sure she's really is this a want or a need, and how's this going to be benefit the citizens? One thing that really bugs me as an elected official, when you have a city council meeting or you even have a plan and zoning meeting prior to the city council meeting, you might have two hours of each of those meetings, and it's just the majority of the constituents are saying no, and this is why we're saying no, and they're valid reasons, not just no for the sake of saying no. And then the city council gets in, they vote just the opposite. So that you're you're not really representing the people then. You're you're just doing you know, so so I try to listen to the people and what they want. Yeah. I usually make sure I go out to the one reason I got elected council because I was on plan zoning, they like the fact that I would go out to the area that's that we're gonna be talking about and just physically look and I would talk to the neighbors around there and see, okay, what's gonna happen here and what are your feelings about it? And they really like that. Yeah, you kind of do invest, you're not just getting the book and looking at it, okay. Oh, I'll probably vote no on this, or I'll vote yes on this.
SPEAKER_01So you really gotta get you you kind of have to understand the culture of the area. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. That helps you really make it. I mean, it's the same thing. It's like if you're gonna buy a property, you have to go see it before you buy it. Yeah, it's the same concept. Right. So good for you from on the representative side. So, so what do you what else would you uh what else would you kind of uh foresee where where Havas is going? I think you're you kind of started on, you know, we we're worried about infrastructure before we continue to build. I mean, I I I have my own thoughts on it. Yeah, but you know, what where do you feel like that's a valid concern?
SPEAKER_00In in some areas, now we we luck what we've done to kind of uh is it truth or is it you know myth, or is it really or is it really truth, is we uh hired a company that does a pavement um index for us. Pavement condition index. They actually drove around every piece of street in Lake Habasu and they just look they kind of sonar everything. So we're not just making decisions based. I think we might need to replace that or we do it gives them an index, and and it's a universal index used all across the United States by this type of thing. So it's so they they rate every road like I think there's a one through six rating, and um it gives us an information on which roads need the most attention now and then which ones we that we could hold off on. Um I think if we continue to do that, we have a great guy named Tim Willett who's in our is in our water department, uh knows more what about water than any of us for will ever forget. And and he's really uh he's got he's got a um a water main uh program he's looking at right now to to to grade all the water mains and so forth. And we talked about it when you're yeah, but your subject was coming up. Uh just because it's old might not be have to be replaced yet. Sure. So that's that's a good thing. But I would like to see down the road, I like to see uh be like a we're called we're called the the blue jewel of the Colorado River. We need to live up to that. You know, I think we need we need to do some beautification. Yeah. So even though Dave Johnson lost the election, I think he brought up a lot of good points that kind of like reset the had people thinking about. Yeah, yeah, I agree. We should have more I it bugs me when I'm driving in town either on the north side or the south side. How it doesn't look real like guys, it's supposed to be the jewel of the Colorado River and there's trash all over the place. And even at the Tri-City Council meeting this morning, we talked to the um ADOT guy was there and we asked him what's going on with the highway beautification. We need some of that here, and then and the trash pickup on this on the highway. So so and that could be that could be all government, it could be uh it could be government and private, you know, private uh investment also to help beautify things. But um I think uh if we do that, I I definitely want to uh uh to entice more viable businesses to come to the city. And we need manufacturing. Dave talked about we need manufacturing businesses, something for people to have careers about. That'll bring restaurants and some more shopping that people are asking about. I think the mall is kind of um not as empty as people think it is. I know. Uh but I think uh Jared does a good job out there. He's got he's got some good things coming up on the horizon that he says you guys are gonna really, really like. So just wait and see. So then that and I think all the growth in the city is gonna happen on the north side of town.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You got the DL Ranch project coming up. It's 990 homes. Uh, one of the myths about that is that where's the water gonna come from? Crypto building houses. There's 600 years worth of water in that Sacramento Basin aquifer. We will be this will be long gone, but be an ancient ruin before there's no there's no and and and it recharges like uh up to 6600 uh acre feet of water every year just naturally. Yeah that whole complex, that whole 990, I think the average home uses like 1.2. Two acre feet of of water a year.
SPEAKER_01So it's nothing similar to what's other. Yeah, yeah. And it's one, yeah, it's how it re uh recalibrates, if you will.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so just giving people the facts and the fiction, even like habits. I mean, we do have to we do a really good job of taking care of our water and being conservation uh, you know, uh um focused on conservation. But we only use about half of our annual entitlements from the Bureau of Reclamation.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. So that's good information.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, really good thing.
SPEAKER_01So when you that's what I think most people really do, you know, are concerned is like, you know, you guys are gonna run out
Water Facts And River Management
SPEAKER_01of water, you know. I asked Cal about it too, and he you know, all the way down to the Colorado River. If you want to talk about that, that'd be killer. I want to hear kind of your thoughts on that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. On the Colorado River? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we've got these seven basin states. Um my I've always said the pro we don't have a water um problem, we have a water management problem. Some of the like California, for instance.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna agree with that.
SPEAKER_00They have I did some research on it. I want to make sure I know what I'm talking about. So California, on average, even on these drought yeah, drought years, on average, they they get about 220 million acre feet of water just rained upon every every year. Um, their their allotment from their entitlements from the Bureau of Reclamation, I think, is like 7.8 million acre feet. And and Paul Gosar validated this with me and and hopefully our next governor, uh Andy, Andy Biggs, they allow about 26 million acre feet of water every year to just flow right into the ocean.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Yeah, so that's exactly what it you kind of hear about you know what's going on in northern California. Just all that water is getting pushed into the Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So three times their allotment, if they would just capture that in some of these reservoirs that are bone dry, or maybe build some new reservoirs or have some kind of a program where they're capturing their water, they would take a lot of pressure off these other states too, you know.
SPEAKER_01But look what happened to all the fires. I mean, that just you stirred that right up with all that stuff that went down, you know.
SPEAKER_00Uh one of my best friends had a beautiful custom home on a on a plateau in Pacific Palisade. He had it built with a custom kit. He's a master chef. He's used to be the ex um the uh executive chef for all the cheesecake factory at the corporate corporate office. Yeah. And his house just got burned to the ground.
SPEAKER_01We have a lot of friends and and actually some family up there, but yeah, there was a lot of people that lost their homes. Yeah, Malibu.
SPEAKER_00And they can't rebuild them. Some of them are like homes that were built 60, 70 years ago, and they're now they're worth worth millions. Now they can't build them. They can't rebuild them.
SPEAKER_01And did you hear about the permits they're trying to get for uh multifamily and some of that low-income housing? It's wild. What's that?
SPEAKER_00I've heard some of that stuff, and they want they want yeah, even in Malibu. Even in Malibu, they're doing some of that stuff. And I think that what's that guy, Graham Platiner? That was it, was who's the guy? Who's the guy that was running for yeah, Plattner?
SPEAKER_01He's a Platner. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He he he he He was all over that. He did a lot, he was all over it. He was all over. Uh they want to they want to like change the name the the whole makeup of the neighborhoods and so forth. But people people are gonna get tired of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01I think Grant Cardone started a big litigation component to that. I think his house almost burnt down. Wow. I think the house right next to him ended up catching on fire. I don't think it burnt all the way down, but yeah, he got he was pissed. And so he ended up pulling all these people together and doing a big class action lawsuit, uh, if I recall.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they do know they do they know they do know really of forest maintenance for clearing of the forest and so forth and and um insurance now. It's even just to just to have a cabin in Big Bear the insurance is just like, oh my god, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was talking to a local uh insurance agent here. She was telling me that she was having a hard time insuring some houses up in the uh foothills now.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so because of all these fires, they're having But they all have though they all have uh sprinkler systems, right?
SPEAKER_00Of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So and all of our all of our projects have are sprinklered. Yeah. But it's moving forward. But I think, yeah, and all those houses up there are, but I couldn't believe when she was saying, yeah, a lot of people, as far as her her carrying, I'm not gonna drop the name, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Her carrier won't want insure up there anymore. And I'm like, that's incredible. I knew you guys were already out of California, but the fact you're not gonna do it up there anymore, this is crazy. Who's gonna buy a house without insurance? Yeah, no, they're just what more how you get a mortgage here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what do they expect people to do? It's just weird, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it'll it'll it'll eventually weed itself out. But I mean, insurance costs are going through the roof, and it's all because of those fires. Yeah, you know, as as you can imagine, you know, us going to steel building methods has really helped a lot, even from a construction, building risk, you know, builders' risk.
SPEAKER_00Is it cheaper to build with uh metal studs than it is wood?
SPEAKER_01It depends. So our project probably a little more expensive in steel because I have a three-story product as far as the barn caves. So you have more structural steel, so therefore you just have more weight, right? More steel. So it's gonna be a little more expensive, but you can make it up in time, you know. So you can put pretty much like the way we're doing on barn caves, where we can basically erect a building, each unit, we can erect the building and bolt it in. Basically, there's these paneling systems where it's like tongue and groove, yeah, and you can ultimately finish one house a week, and then you can even put the windows in there. Well, because it's built out of steel, you know, you don't have to stack the roof, let it settle, and then put the windows in, right? Right, right. You can literally go right in with the windows, so you can for the most part button up the house once in a week. One a week.
SPEAKER_00Kind of speeds up the process.
SPEAKER_01And then you have the finish work, which is standard, you know, uh interior finish work. And we're we'll do like lumber interior walls that are non-structural, so that way you can hang TVs and kind of drywall and kind of get, you know, the normal way. But um, yeah, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive with steel, but and we have some tariff issues, you know, that's but it's not that that much on the forefront now because most of our steel is coming out of uh Mexico, but it can be. The point is, is that the the uh insurance policy though, like if you look at it from an from an end user, so like the person who buys the home, their insurance policy is lower, you know, with the cost of living already going up, and given the market here, you want to focus on that along. That's why I was talking about HOAs before we jumped on this. Yeah, you know, trying to compress those costs, help people you know, ultimately, you know, um you know financially take care of their home or or qualify. So yeah, we we wanted to focus on we we saw that as a big movement coming, you know, prior to that. But remember, I I also own a manage a debt fund. So I'm more of a construction lender by trade. So as we fund a transaction, we have to have an insurance policy, right? Just like any home or mortgage. So we were looking at some of these other barn dominions that were being built back east, and we realized how or we were identifying how cheap it was for your builder's risk and for insurance, along with the homeowner's insurance. And we're like, wow, that's why these barn dominions are just blown up. Right. You know, because they're a little more affordable. Yeah, yeah. Build them anywhere, you can do snow loads, and in many ways, you don't have to worry about termites and certain things, you know. So it's I think that's gonna be the wave of the future, steel building methods.
SPEAKER_00Interesting, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Keep an eye on that, especially, especially with uh, you know, like for example, the barn caves, you know, those are 10-foot setbacks from each other, the closer. Yeah, you know, so you know, fire hops to each other, right? So that really kind of came up in when we were going through the qualification process of of uh insurance. So how far apart are they? You know, you have solar, there's your paneling, like all those things. The questionnaire now for getting insurance is impressive. Things are changed so much from an insurance procedure.
SPEAKER_00Crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. Crazy. Because they have to make up for their losses that they're they're probably fired in California. I mean, it's just someone's gotta pay for it. Someone's gonna pay for, yeah. They're gonna they're gonna it's gonna cost somebody. I mean, you know I we were but maybe about a year and a half, two years ago, we got our uh our renewal notices from our auto insurance company. No tickets. No tickets, no nothing for years, both of us, and they both went up. So I we called and the the lady says, Um, well, where's your zip code? What's your zip code? She said, I go, 86406. Oh, and she and I hear the little clicking on the clickboard. Oh, yeah, you're in Lake Habitude. That's been identified as a high um uh traffic uh collision area. So everyone's insurance is going up.
SPEAKER_01So it's like an excuse. Yeah. To me, that was an excuse. You're like, hold on, we don't have that many residents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but yeah, I know I know people drive crazy on the 95, but uh we we have a good driving record, but you're gonna pay for the people that
Fixing The Airport For Growth
SPEAKER_00don't don't drive properly. Apparently. You know, another another big driver that I'm talking about change in Lake Habasu, we have a great asset out there at the airport. And I want and I and I want to see.
SPEAKER_01You want to bring that up? Yeah, I do, I do.
SPEAKER_00I I want to see I I've been meeting with um uh our FEO out there and others, and um, so we're gonna definitely uh start being a little bit proactive and asking some questions. And I hate when someone has great ideas and it's always no, we can't, no we can't, no we can't. And why? Well, could we never I don't want to hear that. So I will be I will be working close with the uh I've already talked to Cal about it. Um we're gonna be working close with the FBO out there because when they first came out here, they were very um Are you talking to Velocity? Velocity Oh yeah, I've been talking to Chad, the CEO of Velocity. Good, okay um and um our airport manager just resigned. He's got like maybe maybe another week and a half and he's he's gone.
SPEAKER_01Did they bring on the there was another gentleman by the name of Alan? Did they bring him back?
SPEAKER_00No, no, and so so uh when I had some initial conversations with our city uh manager, Jess, he said, Well, I'm we've got so much stuff going on and a lot of moving parts right now at the airport. We have some grants that we've asked for the FAA to fuel.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's it's it's all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00So he says he says, I'm gonna have to temporarily maybe hire a third-party consultant to run that. I said, time out. No third party consultants, I'm done with that. We're gonna there's we got people in this town that used to run airports.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, there's some sophisticated people.
SPEAKER_00And they have reached out to us. So I I gave Jess uh a name the other day, and I'll I'll give him some more. I said, This hire someone local here that will be an interim. And who knows, maybe if they do a great job, maybe we offer them a job.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But they they they live here in Havasu, they're vested. They've ran municipal airport. Well, this one guy gave me, he's been he's ran the airport uh for like 12 years at municipal airport. So these guys have experience, yeah. And then let's just take it that way. And so that's a good that might be a good idea. So, but I've been talking to Chad from Velocity, I've been talking to the Dean from Excalibur. Um when they first came out here, they were all excited and anxious and wanted to do it. And then I see a year later, they were just like all defeated. And like they so I said, What is going on? Yeah. So anyway, so long story short, um, we're gonna make some changes out there, and then we have to do everything that has to be audio, it has to be approved by the FAA, obviously. But I think uh moving forward, um, there's a huge opportunity out there for um for economic development and just I know they t their talent is I gotta get all the nuts in the boat. Their talent is that even though we have tried commuter um service uh three times already, there is a way to do it that it that could it it could it can be done. So we'll we I want to I just want to listen to the pitches, right? I want to hear what's going on so we can make the right decisions.
SPEAKER_01I'm not trying to be a bad host, but I'm actually pulling out my laptop. I'm gonna see if I can pull up the pro forma that I ran for the airport. This is a while ago, so I don't know how much you know. Hey, Joe, will you call Mike real quick and see if Joe? Call Mike real quick and see if you can get the pro forma for the airport. Um so I ran a pro forma, so I don't know how much you know about this, but I was approached to help basically just kind of come up with an idea of what the cost would be to expand the airport. And they originally it was about the airplane hangers, uh or sorry, the uh uh uh helicopter hangers.
SPEAKER_00And approached by who?
SPEAKER_01Um so I so there's there's like a handful of uh of helicopter groups there. Okay. They brought me to the old uh airport manager, Rob.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Rob.
SPEAKER_01And Rob and I started having our private conversations, and he wanted to show me uh a portion of the north side, which is for the most part graded and ready to go. So I went with my architect, I drew up some ideas based on what they were looking for, and I said, Hey, this is what it's gonna cost, this is probably what it's gonna take. Just give him some rough numbers. Of course, I'm raising my hand because I would love to build some hand caves over there, right? But um, so I kind of gave him some numbers there, and then he came to me and said, Hey, can I talk to you about another location? So then he was talking to me about another location that was right over by the fuel station. Okay, and it's down kind of in that ravine, kind of closer to the 95. But the approach was bad. So I was working with some of the uh uh helicopter guys talking about that, but they were concerned about winds and how much they are placed, like how big the location was for them to land, and then fuel. That was a big concern. Can you get fuel to come out of the airport and come into that spot? Because the fuel would have to actually leave the airport as far as the fuel truck. And then and then there was that whole south side where the the RFP that you guys had there, and I know that was like a whole political crap going on there for years, for years, and then nothing would ever happen there, and you know, all those things. So I was approached, I ended up kind of getting uh they they came to me to look at that. And I if I recall, it was about 250,000 square feet mixed use. There was like tons of like tea hangers and bigger hangers, 100 by 100s and all kinds of stuff there. And uh, and I gave them a pro forma, like a kind of a rough draft of what I think you guys can do to build this, how long it would take. There's a lot of dirt work that needs to be done. You got to pull in all the infrastructure. So I I kind of looked at all of that stuff and then and just kind of gave them my professional opinion, if you will. And then, you know, told them, hey, if you guys are gonna do this, you know, you're gonna have to do what deal with private capital for sure. And then the other concern, and I I didn't get the answer because I don't think we got far enough, but and you're gonna probably know this more than I would. But from my understanding, what we would have to do is we would improve, do all the improvements to the taxiways to get down into those to that. So this is what I'm talking about, the south side, sure. Get the approval for the taxiways, but the FAA over time, seven, eight, nine, ten years, would then reimburse us for what we spend on that taxiway, but they would maintain it as long as it was built. So you have to go get the contract with the FAA for all that. I know that takes time. But that was one of those things where I can't I went to them and I said, Well, you know, this is when the guys before they sold the the FBOs to Velocity. I said, in your RFP, what's the agreement as far as the land lease and what do you have to give back to the city? So we were looking at those numbers, and I think I I generated just kind of you know, landing fees and those type of things and selling these over time. I think once it was completely built out, which I gave them a five and a half year performa, uh, I think it was like five and a half million dollars in revenue just on that portion alone. For the coming back to the city, yeah. Yeah, just the city. Now that's just and that's just based off of what they were saying in rev their revenue numbers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I think I think um it it definitely warrants uh to down the road for us to have a a workshop where we we we call for a special meeting, we have all the airport um people that are interested and have uh you know um a stake in the game for lack of a better term, to come to us and we have like a two, three hour, four-hour workshop meeting at the city council chambers. Specifically only the subject matter is to talk about what can what are we doing wrong at the airport, what can we do right? Let's get some ideas, what's you know, what what can we do that's uh approved by the FAA and and so just to have a conversation because right now it's just it's just every year it's just the same old. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's just not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's not going anywhere. I think 17 acres that uh Apex grabbed. Yep, yep. And there's gonna be some retail there and some commercial, and there's gonna be obviously residential, there's gonna be a new VA, VA hospital with 100 beds and kitchen and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Um We we were telling people like a lot of my clients, I'm I really appreciate it because I you know, one of the things I try to do is hold back. I don't ever want to try to be you know, talk about my agenda on my podcast, especially with someone like yourself on as my guest, but that's the reason why I wanted to go north. You know, if you look at big cities and you're around that much retail, as long as you have good retailers with long leases, that's why I met I built a really good relationship with Jared. I said, talk to me about Dillards, then I found about the Dillard family, then I talked about JC Penney, then he was telling me about you know Buffalo Wild Wings and kind of, and believe it or not, that place is stacked. I mean, I only think he has very that that many, you know, uh units available over there. And then come to find out about you know some restaurant that's coming in there, nice restaurants going in there. And yeah, and then when Apex pulled that, I think it was April of last year, yeah, when they pulled down that 600 plus acres, that was impressive. And then Angelo, the owner of Viewpoint, the developer on Viewpoint, reached out to me and then they wanted to sell me a portion of that 600 acres because he was gonna buy 300 and start developing. I just talked to Angelo the other day, and they're you know, he's gonna do all the master plan because I think he's more of a horizontal guy. So he's still working on it. But him and I have been talking a lot about that. I don't know if I'm gonna buy any, but but the point is that there's so much development going on in the north side.
SPEAKER_00It's it's gonna blow people away. And let's let's just use all of our connections and do what's best for the overall city, which means it's gonna be best for all the citizens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I and and you know, people, I think a lot of people were you're building million-dollar homes, you're building, and I'm like, I yes, you kind of have to. It's just the cost of building projects now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was at a you know, I was at an event with uh Michelle Lynn. Um if they had this group had a candidate for them. Um they invited all seven candidates to running for city council. Michelle couldn't go because she was out of, I think she was out of town. So on their uh a good thing, thumbs up to them, they called her about uh maybe three weeks before the election, hey, we know you couldn't make it to that previous one when we had all the other six people there. Would you like to come and do your spill in front of our group? And and and she said, Yeah, definitely. So she asked me about, I'll come and support you. I sat there and she and they came around to they were talking about affordable housing, which I you know, what's affordable housing? I always say to find someone to find affordable housing first. And she made a great comment. She said, We cannot make a builder buy uh buy a lot, lots are just over a hundred thousand dollars now, and then build a home and sell that home for uh a hundred thousand or less.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's like common sense, and someone in the audience, I don't even know who her name was, she yells out, that's not true. And Michelle said, I'm I'm sorry, but it is true. How we how are you gonna enforce a builder to buy the lawn, the lot, the lot, put all the infrastructure in, and then build his home and then sell it for $100,000. It's not gonna happen. But this person was adamant now in the audience that you can do it. I said, Okay, but maybe you have a magic wand or something. But I mean, I bought I bought my first house in 1986. I think I paid $82,000 for it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. My father just bought a house up in the foothills, and we were going through you know, the the pri the project, or I always call project the house before he bought it. And he was asking me for my opinion. And I took the very first thing I told him, I said, first of all, this is an absolute gorgeous house. I said, You couldn't build this house for what you're buying it for. You need to buy it. Yeah, I said the replacement code. Oh, it was completely built, it's fully landscaped. Every inch of that property that could be used was used, you know. It was up in the estates. Yeah, yeah. I said, Pops, you and you could not rebuild this house brand new for what you're buying it for. You need to pull the trigger, you know, kind of thing. And he's like, done. And so, and I'm I'm I'm about to break ground on a spec that's up there as well. And it's smaller than his house, and I'm gonna be over $400,000 more than what he bought his house for, just to build my cost.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. My friends just sold their house there. They're there, they were um we had a big lay uh event there for Carrie Lake when she was running for governor, and she and they had it, and she she she goes, if you could get Carrie Lake to my house, we'll host it. So I carry even said, God, this is the nicest house I've ever been into. Gorgeous house. But they just sold it and then they moved, they bought like 46 acres up by Tahoe. Oh wow. They have a trade where we're well off. And um, they're gonna they're gonna build that exact same house over there in Tahoe.
SPEAKER_01Got it. Which side of the uh California side? California side, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's crazy. He's uh he owned a truck, big trucking company, and she's a retired big-time lawyer or something. Some cool. But yeah, the house is really a beautiful house up there. That's one of the nicest ones I've seen in the foothills.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there you know, uh between the foothills, because I had uh I had Luke still on the podcast. Okay, you know, so we got a chance to really talk about the Riviera, the refuge. They did the foothills, of course. And I just kind of started learning more about just all the players that were involved in all that. Yeah, then he said it too. He's like, the going north is where it's at right now. That's that's where it's gonna be at. And especially for the more I don't want to say affordable attainable housing, it's all going that way. So if you look at Viewpoint, the houses that you get in Viewpoint are absolutely stunning because they did it right. They just basically did all the lots, and then they sold, you know, sold the lots to somebody who wants to basically build their dream home, you know. But you have your you know, your box that you got to fit in. But man, it those houses are gorgeous in there, and you can get it for a decent price.
SPEAKER_00When you tell everybody, and I'm glad you mentioned, when you tell everybody that most of the growth is going to happen in the north side of town, then then you tell them the why. They all I haven't had one person say, Oh, that doesn't make they all say, Oh, yeah, I get it. It makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, the malls out there, there's got more land out there, there's new development happening, and yeah, so so they they get it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we uh so there was uh I don't know if you know this, but um, did you ever hear about that seven uh story product that I brought to the city? So we kind of had a little like for yeah, I don't know. So I brought my architect out, I have another architect in Texas. I brought him out, he kind of designed, so it's the eight acres right next to J.R. Motor. So this is right across from you know uh the Barncape site next to Dillard's, right? Okay. So where they have that uh, what is that, that carnival thing? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's kind of a unique layout, right? But we were able to design a seven-story apartment product there, and um, and I could actually get that to pencil because the more the higher I go up, yes, it costs more money, but I can get more units in there so I can get it to work. But we were worried about the glide slope because it was closer to the airport and all those things. And so we went and met with the city, and they're like, Yeah, this is fine. We and at the time, that's when I was talking to Rob, the old airport manager, he was there because we wanted him to be there, and he did all of his homework ahead of time. So when we sat down, they're like, Yeah, we would love to approve this type of stuff on the north side. And when you start building, you know, mid-rise uh, you know, housing over by all that type of retail. Now we're talking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we're talking about future athletic fields out there and uh maybe a second swimming pool. And yeah, so there's all yeah, and it's already on the way, you know.
SPEAKER_01They already have that batting cage, which my son goes to. They already have all that going on.
SPEAKER_00I gotta go in there and meet and introduce myself.
SPEAKER_01It's pretty cool. Yeah, and and I they really took to my son in there. He's in there, he was just there yesterday.
SPEAKER_00Nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you don't it's going, it's happen it. Whether you like it or not, it's happening. Yeah, yeah, you know, exactly. So I think it was really kind of nice because the the fitness center that we want to build there is really been like even Jarrett and I were talking, and you know, Angela, they're like the you you're kind of like cracking that ice. You know, once you it's just like is there's just something that just needs to be pushing over the edge, you know, over there and then all of a sudden it's start snowballing. Yeah, and I think that six hundred acre acquisition with what we're doing, and then that restaurant that's going in, and then you know, kind of where I feel like you I do feel that it's something's gonna crack too with the airport. Oh
SPEAKER_00No, it is. I think it is pe people are I get there's not a day that goes by and people don't ask me about it. Yeah, and I'm saying I've been talking to Chad and he's got some great ideas and I've been talking to the mayor, I've been talking to Jess, and said we've got to get the pe the right people in the room and just talk things out and not just say no. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I think you got I I th that's right there. If that, you know, like I said, I tell everybody once you have so much energy going into an area, it just combusts. And I think that's what's gonna happen. I think that whole area is just gonna explode. And remember, Jarrett's got all that land on the outskirts, kind of he's got a lot of available land, and there's some other owners that he was telling me that own some of those lots that he kind of carved off when he pulled it down. And I think it was like 08 or 09 when he bought it, right? And he was telling me, he's like, Oh, those people will they'll sell too if we you want to work a deal with them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and he's talked about uh helping us with some uh athletic fields. So is Dustin about out there in the other area because it's you're gonna have families out there, they're gonna want athletic uh fields and soccer fields and a couple of baseball diamonds.
SPEAKER_01It's endless. Yep, the extreme sports thing is a thing, you know. And then I had a group that does uh that wanted to do a um a huge uh surf park. You hear about that? I'm sure you guys have seen that.
SPEAKER_00Well, there was a guy that came to the city um about three years ago. Ace. His name's Ace. And he he he builds like a wave machine, yeah. And we and we ran him off. Yeah, I so he and I I'm still and I'm still surprised why we ran him off. And now people are saying we need a splash pad, and we need this guy was gonna build a beautiful little water park there off Bahama.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we and we had a council member at the time, which still blows, I still bring it up to Cal that we had a council member that actually called that guy during the guy came up to give his presentation, then he called him back up and he called him, you sound like a snake snake oil salesman. And the guy said, I'm sorry, I just I thought Habasu was open for business. And the guy we just and the guy just went away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was shocked, but he he uh he ended up calling me. It was kind of a cool kind of agree.
SPEAKER_00He's a kind of a surfer dude with a long hair. Totally. Yeah, I know I know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01And he just built one, he just built one up in uh Williams. Um kind of like one. Yeah, he built one up in Williams, it's open. Um, and then he was he was working with a group that was doing a big one in Buckeye. Did you hear about that 300 acre master plan that they're building out there? Then the other group came to me, they were looking for some equity, some like LP partnerships. They've been working on it for a long time, but what they're doing is they want to carve out, you know, pieces of land around that where people build maybe some multifamily, maybe some retail. And so they're doing it right, my opinion. They're starting to carve out parcels, right? And then they'll so they'll build the park, they'll generate the energy, and then ultimately they'll start parceling everything out, and then they'll have developers kind of go in vertical at the same time with a different product. And so they were looking at the barn caves, they love that. They love the big garages, all that. And they're like, this is what people want. We want to give you, you know, five acres or whatever the number was. So we're still talking, but they're they're going through approvals right now.
SPEAKER_00I believe he still owns that land off Bahama there. I think he might. I think he still is. I'd love for him to come back. I always ask Jeff every so often. Is that everyone to come back? Give him a call. I'll give him a call. Tell him to come back. I talk to him all the time.
SPEAKER_01He reaches out to me at least once a month to see.
SPEAKER_00We got we got um got a new council. Yeah, you know, and and and and right now it's a hot button. People want more uh water activities.
SPEAKER_01Just for the youth. People want stuff. I would, I mean, I love my kids.
SPEAKER_00I don't I think I remember he was talking about a convenience store, uh you know, like in in the bottom half and wave machine. He had and then we shoot him away.
SPEAKER_01It was pretty cool. Yeah, he's got some cool and he has so the the machine he can you can do pretty much anything. You have the same machine, different, different, uh kind of different layouts, but you could just build all kinds of cool stuff around. Yeah, right. Like again, like that convenience store, and you know, they do a little hotel if you wanted to.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think that's I think that's what he was gonna do there. And then uh yeah. Yeah, but call him. I'll give him a call. Yeah, give him a give him my number. I'll just I'll I'll talk to him and have them see if you'll just have to reach back to the people at the city again. Sure. But uh, you know, just because you say no one time doesn't mean it's no forever. Oh yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've heard that a few times. That's kind of one of those tenacities, you just gotta keep pushing forward. Yeah. Like, I know it's good for everybody.
SPEAKER_00I used to tell my salespeople when I worked for Ecolab, you know, they the newer guys would come where you give them sales training, stuff, basic one-on-one stuff. And say ask for the order.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, if you say no, it's just no.
The 91 Acre Island Redevelopment
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know.
SPEAKER_01You know, that that so going back on that big development that's out there on uh Isla Island, I I want people to know kind of what's going on. Talk about how the size of that thing and and real real quick before you dive into that, I kind of heard some cool things about the developer. I don't know if you know about it, but didn't his son die or something of that nature? And he just is like he came out here with his family and his son or something.
SPEAKER_00I believe he owns the house up in the foothills. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I could be completely wrong.
SPEAKER_00I just what I know just just surface-wise, he owns a house in the foothills. So he's you know, he's vested here in the community. He owns a company called Crowd Strike.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the company, his development company is called Falcon Eye Development. Yep. I hear it's worth $8.3 billion. So him taking some a million dollars out of his pocket, like you and I taking a 20, I guess. But he uh so the the way the the land got uh auctioned off, uh, you know, the first the person who got that going was was Dustin Running from APX. He reached out to the um Arizona State Trust, hey, would you guys be willing to sell that land? Well, yeah, go ahead and get a go ahead and get a uh um get it estimated how much the land would sell for, you know, and blah, blah, blah. He did that. And then uh when they went to the uh decided they were gonna sell it, they went to the courthouse steps of Mojave County Courthouse in Kingman, and two other people showed up along with Dustin and this guy Ended up with the bid. So it's 91 acres on the island, it's the old nautical golf course. Yep. It was zoned um open space golf course uh uh on our on our current zoning in our general plan. So he had to get a um major general plan amendment in order to do what he wants to do out there. So and the community was kind of divided on why are we doing it, why are we doing a major general plan amendment when we're gonna we we're like a few months away from redoing our general plan? That was one argument. The other argument was um the infrastructure's not there and the islands should be open for just why don't you build a great park out there with baseball fields and water parks and would have been a great idea too. Uh personally, I thought the city should have bought that land. Uh the the uh Phoenix did that. That there was a big 500 some acres, and they just said they bought it and they're gonna make like a great park over there. But we didn't do it. So anyway, he they um he came to town, uh, he won the bid. Um he's he's gonna build a luxury hotel there. Yeah, about that. He's gonna work with the do you know how many stories? I'm not sure. I'm not I haven't seen the explanation.
SPEAKER_01I've heard a back and forth on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I haven't I haven't seen the exact plans yet, but he's also gonna build some uh some boat docks. Yep. But he has to get approval with the Coast Guard and and and the uh um Army Corps of Engineers. Yep. Um retail. Um he at one time was gonna put a gas, he had a gas station there, and that got he he made a concession and said, No, no gas station, because people, the people in the commons said, we don't want a gas station right there, and blah, blah, blah. Sure. Um, and then I think there's um some kind of a small uh specialty grocery. So they kind of dangled like sprouts or trade or Trader Joe's, and I said, Don't do that because you could if you can't deliver that his lawyer did that, and I said, Don't be doing that.
SPEAKER_01So that's like that's one of those things that's been an ongoing conversation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he he uh he did he did donate an extra million dollars to the city to for some whatever for some infrastructure stuff. That's all. Um but uh he he did commit at that meeting that they were gonna wait till the second bridge is they know that he even had a PowerPoint slide, and one of the slides said this development does not work unless that second bridge is done. So I'm I'm glad he said that. So I'm sure he's happy that he saw that we're we're gonna start breaking ground that bridge in October or September. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's a big deal. It's gonna be it's gonna change the big thing. It's a huge deal. It's a big it's a big deal. Now, one thing we did to protect the uh because one of the biggest hot buttons for people is protecting shoreline access. Yeah. So he actually agreed to 200 foot easement between the shoreline and his development. Wow. So that's big. That's big, yeah. So when we sent our general plan recently, uh that that we uh ratified as a city, it's gonna be fine uh completely ratified by the voters in at the November election. But we had to have a general plan that that we um like an outline of a general plan. Sure. And then we have to give it to all the agencies and they have a certain amount of time to to um debate something and say that sounds good or no, but that ain't happening. So we did that and the clock was ticking. And we're like two days away from the clock ticking, and we had asked for uh a hundred foot um shoreline setback easement. Yep and Arizona State Trust. We're not saying nothing. Maybe they're gonna go for it. And of course, um they come back and they and they say um no no no no. They wanted 15 feet. That's what's right, hear it that wall right there. Yeah, yeah. So uh when you ask when you get when you negotiate, you always ask for more, right? Sure. So I think I think originally we asked for 150 feet. So then we we said, okay, no, no, that's not we we'll take a hundred feet. They said, no, no, no, we'll give you fifty feet, and we and we landed on 75 feet. And then I got a call from uh uh standard negotiation tools. Like, yeah, ask for asked for the bus. I got a call from uh our our representative Leo Biasuchi, and I said, you said take the 75 feet because that's that's that's a good they were only gonna give you 15 feet. So you got 60 more and 75 feet's pretty good amount. Sure. And then what we could do as a city when someone um some land goes to auction and they purchase the land, and then we have to we have to we put our little regulation. We could add a 25 foot additional easement. There's our hundred hundred feet. Yep. So that that was a that was the big win. And then at the council meeting, not not last night's council meeting, but the but the one but last week, uh two weeks prior, we actually came up with a new um city ordinance uh uh enshrining 75 feet um uh easement around shoreline access. Got it. We just put that in there.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's I think uh because when I was looking at the kind of the I would say the site map that he had planned out, there was some residential there too, right? Don't they have town?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you they got they got it's big. I would have probably voted yes if there wasn't so much residential.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, okay.
SPEAKER_00But he yeah, they they got I think 300 units of residential in it. But it's it's 91 acres. It's pretty good. It's pretty big, it's big. It's big. And then some people were complaining about the shoreline access on the on the I guess be the south side of the of the partial there. But it it's this rocky. I mean, it's you'd have to do some major bulldozes and put some and make some man-made beaches and all that kind of stuff. So that so that yeah, that wasn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01But the fact that you got some docks too, I mean, that's huge.
SPEAKER_00That's that is huge. Yeah and open parking.
SPEAKER_01You're gonna have to do some wave breaks on that corner because there's a lot of waves come over there because he's he's out of the the in essence I'm gonna be able to do.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, but he'd be out in the middle of Townsend Bay. Also, we we got him to uh put no gates where you can't, you know, lock gates, so I can't even get down there. No, there's no gates.
SPEAKER_01People can just kind of freely go down there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he did some, yeah, you could walk around. He he he gave some pretty good concessions. Probably about 14 or 15 different concessions that he did because he really he wants so he wants to build uh something good for the community.
SPEAKER_01And people love to go down the island and walk and take their dogs down there and give them give them something new to kind of go down and there's this misconception that the people on the island island all no, the people that I go on the island all the time.
SPEAKER_00I have a boat uh slip on the island. I go to the island all the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I have more amenities on the island is good, I think it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I'm on the island all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I am, I really am.
SPEAKER_01Having lunch over there or dinner or whatever, yeah. I'm on the island all the time. Yeah, and every once in a while I'll drop at the marina. So I'm down there too. Yeah, and either that or the Riviera are kind of the two spots for me. Yeah, you know, even though Windsor's right here for me. Yeah, it's right there, right? But they you know they got fuel over there, it's helps me out a little bit. But yeah, so yeah, so because I I was looking at that that project, and I thought that was really pretty impressive, what they're building. And that's kind of a testament to what's happening in in in Havasu overall. Like you were just talking about.
SPEAKER_00And he's got some and he's got some developments. We I looked at he did something in Scottsdale, came out really, really nice. So it's not like he's this is his first dip, you know, he's done other things.
SPEAKER_01So pretty solid proof, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then uh, I mean, even the Riviera, man, the Riviera, they just what did they just do? They just cut more lots over there? Called six.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're cutting some more lots. I think they've got 17 more acres that they negotiated with the Arizona State Park. So um, yeah, that's uh that's interesting. I um some people love it, some people don't, but you know, it's it's that's that's from 20-some years ago. Um as long as they uh keep their word on allowing people to go down there and use the store, use the boat slips, and it's not privatized, and I'm good with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. That's my favorite marina.
SPEAKER_00Here's another example. So, you know, when you go through the channel, so you're saying you're heading uh north in the channel. You just just went under the London Bridge and you got condos on both sides. Yep. Well, the condos that are on, I think the condos that are on the on the this way, so the count condos on the island side, that shoreline right there, is all they have it all privatized. You can't you can't moor your boat there. You can't and I always tell Kale, how did that happen?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, supposed to be for the condos, owners of the condos, right? Yeah, but but there's nothing in the sale.
SPEAKER_00The condos on the other side, you could you could park your, you could put your boat right there and hang out there all day with yeah. And I said, and we always talk about shoreline and and everyone, even I even know people, Sam Scramato just got elected city council and after he was 30 years ago, he's on the city council. I asked him, that was during your watch. How did you get and Steve Greeley, how did that happen? They don't know. It just happened. I just missed it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That the guy was able to privatize. Um I I even told I talked to Calabout the other day. I said, Is there any way we could do some kind of uh relook at this? Yeah, it'd just be real it would cause like a major uproar, you know.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'm sure with all those condos over there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's probably helping the value. You just say it's all private. Yeah, private beach. You get your own private beach, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That just bugs every time I take my boat, though, it just bugs me. I want to rip those, like that's insanely.
SPEAKER_01And it's never that busy either. No, it's not. That's like another spot that people could be parking, be parking in.
SPEAKER_00But it is it is what it is. So that's why I think it's very good that we uh uh kind of codified the 75 feet in the general plan.
SPEAKER_01Well, I heard I don't know if this is true or not, but on the opposite side, so over there by um uh the uh the bridge, or what's it called? What's the big hotel there?
SPEAKER_00Heat.
SPEAKER_01No, not the other side. London Bridge? London Bridge Resort. There we go. Right where the golf course is. Is there any new development that's kind of going up against on where that I thought there was something someone was bringing something, some idea up over there?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's so the the London Bridge Resort leases all that whole golf course, that's all leased land from Arizona State Parks.
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_00So they lease that land from Arizona State Trust. So um, and then we have we have some easements that we that we've that we've taken over uh on like on the walkways and so forth, the seawalls, that type of thing. There is there has been rumor that the the uh owner of the English village is is uh they got sold they're gonna because they're gonna read they're gonna re redo their leases. And I I talked to Dallas, who owns the chair. He owns that Booby Falls restaurant up on McCulloch, too. And I asked him, are you guys are you guys closing your chair? No, no, no, no. We're just we're gonna redo our lease. I mean really they're being really upstanding and and upfront on how what how we're gonna because yeah, because you got you got that and you got um burgers by the bridge and some other places down there. Now, does it need some updating and it's a little modernization? I would say yes. Some of those places, some of those buildings are not, you know.
SPEAKER_01They need some love.
SPEAKER_00They need some love. Let's put that out. They need some love. So a little modernization would be nice, you know. Sure.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, this is like one of my favorite spots to go, though. Yeah. Every time I have somebody in town that's never been there, that's where I take them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I'll go down there, I get a live stream cone, I'll start
Downtown Updates And A Community Memorial
SPEAKER_00and walk around. And yeah, it's it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, did they have did you see? I mean, they always have events down there. They had that Charlie Kirk thing there, that was just amazing. Yeah, I was involved with that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I gave a big speech and I played a song, and and uh we had we we so Charlie was killed like uh three days after he killed. We had that we had that event. We had over 3,000 people. It was packed. So Nancy Campbell and I are uh we we just got it approved with the council. We're doing the Charlie Kirk memorial right down there, uh a parking lot across from In N Out Burger. And you go down there, there right there, right. There's that there's that freedom walk right down there, and there's a area there. There's just a dilapidated piece of dirt, so we're gonna make a beautiful Charlie Kirk memorial there. We got a lot of in-kind donations and some it's just gonna be really cool. And we're gonna try to have it done before Charlie's birthday. I think it's October 11th, I believe. And we're gonna invite Turning Point to come, and we're gonna have Evelyn Tinsley is the one that's kind of helped really get the uh the the crowd down there for that big candlelight vigil, and we're gonna try to we've got we're already working with her to get the word out, we're gonna have this big vigil. We want to just have a ton of people down there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's cool. Good for you guys. Yeah, yeah. Come to find out, a really good buddy of mine, he's uh he's building basically these little healthcare facilities and all these you know private gyms, and he's kind of more he's a he's a doctor, and he was telling me that all of his remodels are all done by Kurt Charlie's father, he's an architect, and he basically focuses on like a lot of big, like multi-million dollar remodels. And so it kind of we kind of crossed paths a little bit. And I thought that was really kind of cool. He was telling me about the story because he was knee deep in designing like four different projects with with his dad when this all happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And he said it was just incredible how much the family pulled together for the gives us.
SPEAKER_00Even this memorial, uh, there's some people in town that from the other side of the aisle is like, oh, you guys should not be memorializing that, blah, blah, blah. But it's it's not really it's a memorial for Charlie Kirk, but we're it's uh we're uh gonna be giving scholarships on a yearly basis to the students and the at the schools for freedom of speech, and they're gonna write essays and earn scholarships and so forth. So it's all it's gonna be really close. It's all keep the conversation, keep the conversation going, freedom of speech. We're not making it a political thing at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we we uh we hit a few organizations around in town, and um, for some reason or other, some of them didn't hit, but then you know, God, everything happens for a reason with God, right? So so we we we reached out to the uh Have a Suit Freedom Foundation. There's like they're the ones that work through all those those those freedom bricks down there, and they just love the idea. They said we are all in, whatever you need. We needed a we needed a 501c3 so we could take get the donations for the for the donations for the scholarships to go through them. Yeah. And they're they're more than happy to get involved.
SPEAKER_01What what's your kind of overall, what's your what's your passion? What's your number one just kind of things that really like you know, feeds your you know, fills your cup, if you will. Well, you know, I'm what's your best thing? I guess what's your what's your heart talk to you about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you know, I didn't want to be one of those guys that just retired and that I'm gonna go play golf and I'm gonna go do pedal around the house. And so I'm glad that I can die early. Yeah, I exactly, exactly. So I'm glad I got involved. It actually makes me younger because I was kind of getting in that little rut. And I'm 68 years old. So You don't look 68. No, I am so so um I really, really like the politics of just getting into seeing how the sausage is made, and I've met some great people in our state legislatures, and I know uh uh Andy Biggs is gonna be running for governor. I know him personally. Paul Gosard, we we talk on a regular basis. Uh so I really like that. So it allows me to still be retired, but still give back to the community and make it a better place to live. Because I'm invested here. I own a home here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh my kids come here and my grandkids, and and I see a lot so many people that retire here and eat people that move here that are so in the working, working age, and they want it to be a good place to raise their kids, you know. And we want we don't we don't want them to say, ah, habit habits is not the place, it's just a place to visit. I want them to think it's a great place to raise a family. We got all kinds of opportunity. We got the beautiful lake, we got the the side-by-sides out in the trails, we got the hiking. So that so I just I want to just continue to make I want people to say when when David Diaz is done that he made a difference. And so far, so good. I haven't had one person tell me that you're not doing what you ran on. They say you are doing exactly what you ran on, and we appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01Nothing better feeling than that.
SPEAKER_00And people send us emails all the time, and they go, You're the only one that's and other people do it too. I know it's not I'm not the only one, but they tell me you were the first one or even the only one that reached out or called me about my situation. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01That's really cool.
SPEAKER_00And people it's amazing how people really like that, you know, and because they don't want to just feel that you get you once you get elected, you you you don't come back. Yeah, and that's that's another thing I do. So I've been involved with I say the Eagles, the Alks, the American Legion, the EFW, and and um and and some of the other um clubs in town, and they say you came and talked to us when you were running. And and this is they do they do tell me this you are the only one, besides Cal, you are the only one that comes every month to our organizations and meeting and comes back to talk to us. Yeah. So that tells us a lot too. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, let me ask you
Healthcare Access And Physician Recruiting
SPEAKER_01this, and I appreciate that. Let me tell you this. What healthcare has always been kind of a big conversation piece out here. The more the the longer I've been out here, the more that's been you know a big conversation. What do you what is there what what just let's talk, just hover on that for a second. What is the is there a growth problem? Is there a money problem? Is there a political problem? You know, because people are thinking that the health care isn't as good as it could be.
SPEAKER_00Well, it well, first of all, people have to realize we're not in a big metropolitan uh area. We're we're we're in rural Arizona, right? So it's not gonna be the same as Los Angeles or Orange County or wherever, you know. Phoenix, Vegas. Phoenix, yeah. So what I say, because I I'm not gonna give anyone a false hope and tell them I'm I'm working with healthcare and I'm gonna try to bring some new healthcare here. Because we really have no, we have really have no say in the matter.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's not enough data, there's not enough bodies, right? You need to be more dense list goes on.
SPEAKER_00But from talking to the people I know at the hospital and talking to some of the physicians that come in and they eventually leave. Even my personal uh my my general practitioner, uh he ended up moving back to going to Scottsdale with his family. He had a young kid and so forth. But they tell me their wives don't like they want more shopping options, they want more restaurant options.
SPEAKER_01That is probably the most truth you could say. It's so true.
SPEAKER_00And then that's another thing that our airport's gonna help us with. I think if we if we could develop some kind of a good plan for the airport and make it more viable, that's gonna happen too. But what I will say is I will work with any health care company that wants to come here, I will have an open policy. Hey, let's talk to them. Now, Bullheads has got some new healthcare, but because they went to the ICSC ICS. CSC show in Vegas a couple years ago, and they went up to their booth and said, Hey, we need you to come to Bullhead, and they started the conversations. They got a new health care area. We need to start doing that. Some our PED needs to start doing that kind of stuff. And I want to share, I want to hear more uh proactive things that our PED, that's our partnership for economic development. What are they doing to address that? Uh Jenny Koch is the uh is the um physician recruiter for the hospital. She's on city council right now, and she tells us, you know, she's she has these conversations with people, and then they then they come to town, and then what we just said about the shopping.
SPEAKER_01It's so true. It's funny that you said that because it's like kind of I was just talking to another guy about that. He's like, we want to come out there, but the wife, like, they'll come out here because it looks great, but then over time they're like, hey, this is just not enough out here for us.
SPEAKER_00It sounds so slumpistic.
SPEAKER_01But then the women always say there's just not enough shopping. It's so true. They'll go to Vegas. The husbands will still go to Vegas.
SPEAKER_00Although anything they could buy, they could just get on their phone and order online. Anything.
SPEAKER_01I think they just want to go try it on.
SPEAKER_00I know, I know. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's I know not trying to speak for them, but I could only imagine that how much you know the owner of the mall, Jarrett, would would help. You know, he's got all that land. I mean, I could see, especially with the surgery center that he has then.
SPEAKER_00He has that surgery center there, and and him and I have talked about it, and they want to make that more viable and more and work with the insurance companies and so forth. So we're um we're working with uh Congressman Gosar and and some of our state legislatures to get the insurance companies to quit kind of blocking, you know, him and and only working with the hospital. So yeah, that there's there's that's a great, that's a really nice facility there.
SPEAKER_01It's uh I want the price of it.
SPEAKER_00I had someone told me that they got had some procedure that they got priced on at this hospital and it was nine thousand dollars, and over there at Jared's place, it was a third of that price.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal, especially as you get older and more and more money is going through that healthcare. You know, you're serious. And that was that was kind of what I was so Jared and I, when we first started really building a relationship, he was like, Hey, I need you to come in and take a look at my facility.
SPEAKER_00It's so we we we scrubbed up. Yeah, I went to the ribbon to oh did you get it?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, we scrubbed up. He walked me through the whole thing and it was I I was impressed because he, you know, he's he's he lights up when he gets to show, you know.
SPEAKER_00I was there for the ribbon cutting when they did the ribbon cutting, he was all happy, so and so it's an accomplishment. Yeah, me and Callins took us all around with the owners and everything.
SPEAKER_01He's got like 15 or 20 million bucks in that thing, yeah. It's in the tech that's in. I was literally, I was so impressed. It made me look at Havasi differently. Like, yeah, hold on, this stuff is coming, this is important.
SPEAKER_00And and I don't think a lot of people still know what what the capabilities are they can do out there. They just think they could go right here. I gotta go to Phoenix, I gotta go to Vegas, you know. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01I have been begging him to come onto my podcast, and he's like, I just don't want to do it. He doesn't want to do it. I'm gonna try to see if I can get him to do it. He's like, I don't know if I'm ready for that, but I'm gonna see if I can get him on there. I know. He's he's he's I mean, obviously his super smart guy, but he's he's very successful too. Yeah, he does all he's a little entrepreneur, but very good. He bought that, I think, on a 1031 and kind of worked. I don't think he's ever done anything like that before.
SPEAKER_00We're talking to him, Nancy and I. We we had a meeting already with the city manager and some other people just about the the the um athletic field situation and how how how can we partner somehow. And yes, he got some good ideas. Yeah, yeah. That's right. He's very uh forward thinking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I I told him I like it because you think out the think out of the box like me. And I'm like, no, this is the way we do it.
SPEAKER_01And you know, yeah, he's a numbers guy. Yeah, he knows his thing. We were talking about doing a a little partnership on a project over there. I told him, let me get through some of the stuff I already have going on. I know our bandwidth, let me get through what we have and we'll we'll spark that back up. Because anything I can do to help, you know, on what we're doing on the north side is just gonna help us, of course. But that like I said, I just I'd love the fact that restaurants are gonna go in that direction. Healthcare, anything I can do to help there, I'm all about it, you know. Um, but yeah, that would be
Mayoral Plans And Better Public Input
SPEAKER_01that would be really cool to see that side just really big. Yeah, it's not a matter of if it's when then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I totally agree.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, so a couple more questions. So what's what's your um, you know, what's your what's your next step? What's your future say? You say you want to you want to run for mayor, maybe.
SPEAKER_00I I get that asked all the time. Uh so with pro so Cal has already announced that he's gonna run um um this he's gonna just be one more term. So this term? To this term, so it's uh so it'll be his third term, so um, and he's not gonna run. And he's even told me we had it. We had we meet every uh every every other Monday. And he told me yesterday uh Monday, he said, um, yeah, like I get rid of my signs now, not to run anymore. So you know, four more years. Yeah, great, congratulations. So um so after the Cal's so so I I'm gonna I I have to run for counsel again in in in 2028. Okay. And then uh so that'll be two years into Cal's second his his last term, and then when he when he's done uh being mayor, then I'll I'll I'll put my hat in the ring for mayor.
SPEAKER_01Oh cool.
SPEAKER_00I promise that to a lot of people, and I said, yeah, I'll I'll I'll do it. I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01I think you're gonna be just fine for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I got a ton of support in town. And and other people will run also, and then it's always the best man or woman wins, you know. But whoever runs the best campaign and who gets out there and um I want to continue that, but I told you earlier that it's um not just campaign promises, but you're getting things done. Yeah. You know, someone asks you, What did you do in your in your terms? I want to be able to say I did this, I did this, I did this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And or I or I pushed for this. I got the council to help you know develop a program and we did this. So not just, you know, I I don't know, what did I do? That's not a good thing. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think I think you know, you just kind of read up on your professional life. I think you are perfect for that slot because you are a businessman that understands like how to scale like a Fortune 500 company. And then obviously you know how to manage people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, and that's what it comes down to is just making sure you're managing people properly and highlighting your I tell the uh even even the city staff, and we have meetings, and I tell um city manager, I said, it's not that much different than you know, have being in a private sector and I mean governments. The only difference is this this is we're spending taxpayer dollars here, we're making a product and we're selling it for profit, and that's that's what we spend our money on to grow the company. But the dynamics as far as managing people and and you know, there's organizational personal relationships and yeah, yeah. It's really no different. No, really no different. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I really to be candid, I uh I I've been spending more time just because of you know how much we're doing here to kind of get to know more people.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm glad I I'm glad I got to know you better and another night than that now, and so yeah, we'll keep that going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00And I just I'm starting to really kind of start using all your connections for the betterment of the city and and what you want to get accomplished, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I you know, I've I'd love for you know people to use me as a resource. Yeah, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to certain things and use the nerdiness, you know, when it comes to pro formas and numbers and costs for things, you know. That's kind of my forte. But you know, that's I was telling Dave too. You know, if if if he if we were to be elected, feel free to use me as a resource. So I said the same thing to Cal. Yeah, you know, I said just you know, when it comes to building this or you have a contractor bidding out that, just run it by me and I'll tell you my thoughts on it. That type of stuff save some money.
SPEAKER_00Why not?
SPEAKER_01You know, why it's always good to have just an advisory board for specific things, something we all do, I bet. You know, so I told him, I said, just feel free to use.
SPEAKER_00I've always thought I was talking to Michelle about this. It would be nice that we had kind of like a citizen advisory board or council for large projects, not just the staff making these decisions, and we're voting on it. Let's let's get some that would be the smartest thing. Let's get some experts in the different fields that that are here, yourself, others, and this okay, here's what we're thinking about doing. Are we missing something? You know, is there a better way to do it?
SPEAKER_01There's so many smart, sophisticated people that would that would do it for well, I would do it for free. I don't think anyone cares. I mean, they would love to have a voice and say, hey, let's because all their the that makes them feel like they're contributing and that all their hard work and all the things that they've learned and all the landmines they've stepped on wasn't in vain sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, no, no. They like to and they feel like they're part of the decision making process. Because that was one thing I think came out in this last election. There were people who feel there's like a disconnect. Like you guys aren't listening to what we really want, but I think we just have to communicate better. Get these two people like this, you know.
SPEAKER_01So do you have any uh do you guys are you guys looking at annexing any more land into the city?
SPEAKER_00I haven't heard no, I haven't heard of anything. People always tell me, hey, we they live in Donkey Acres, they live out Crystal Beach, and hey, you guys just annex us, we want to be able to vote. No, but no, we just recently did the uh the um sheriff substation out there, um, which I think is gonna be a great little piece of some of the great little real estate. Yeah, I I was like, that's a great little site, like a hamburger uh diner on the side of the road right there. God, that place would be cranking. So I got a couple people I'm gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_01There's nothing else over there.
SPEAKER_00I got a couple of people I know in town that are restaurant that I know that run restaurants, and I'm gonna ask, hey, you guys should check check with the so check with the county, because the county still owns the land, the building. We just annexed the land. So um you should reach out to the county and see what they're like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we have another thing that could be that's just it's the NASA is just sitting there dilapidating, which really bugs me, is site six. Oh, I know. The little the little building right there. Right next to it. They're really cool little kitchenettes in there and so forth. They just if someone could just refurbish that and do make it like a little store or something. Something. I had a friend of mine that wanted to um he owns a couple of restaurants in town. He wanted to uh his idea was to he said he would do all the the the up the updating of the building and he wanted to do like a sandwich and burritos, tacos stand right there for and sell beers and and sodas and waters for the people in the boats right there. He said, and some people on council, uh that's kind of disrespectful to the because that was a military uh thing. I said, What's disrespectful? I said at the meeting, it's disrespectful. Is that where we're let this rat infested in and we're just letting it get dilapidated? That's what's disrespectful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not being used for anything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's another thing down the road we could talk about. So cool, man.
SPEAKER_01Well, I really appreciate it. So I appreciate it too.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm good. I'm I thanks for the invite. I'm glad I ran into you at the watch party and then we talked about doing this and appreciate it. Yeah, really good.
SPEAKER_01No, you're not this won't this won't be the last time.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, it won't, it won't be the last time.
SPEAKER_01No, and anything you ever want to do and talk about just to let the you know the community know we're our following continues to grow and we're very blessed. We feel honored to be able to just kind of have a platform that people can just listen to, whether
Final Thoughts And Closing
SPEAKER_01on a plane or in a you know driving their car or what have you. And it's really been growing, you know. And I think this the you know, having uh both Cal and Dave on there was was huge.
SPEAKER_00I think having you on here is a big deal. There's a lot of chatter about both of those, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think you have I I just feel like you you're very rooted and you're grounded and your background says a lot. You know, when I when I got a chance to kind of look into you a little bit more before this, and I do that with everybody I have it. It's just kind of I was really impressed by your professional background, and I'm like, well, that makes complete sense because you're just kind of like one gear. Like you just have, and so it makes sense when you're telling me people call you and go, Hey, I really appreciate everything you say you're gonna do, you do, you know, and that's that's kind of that one gear eye. You know, when you have, I mean, that's that corporate mindset. No matter what it takes, you get the job done.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I always said you you plan your work and then you work your plan. That's it. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for your day, thank you for today. I really appreciated getting to know you even more. There was more more to this than I than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_00That was really good. I appreciate it. I had a good time.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you everybody for listening. And uh, you know, we'll bring on uh special guests, as you guys know. We try to continue to build our platform, so please hit the follow and uh like button. But uh we appreciate you guys, and we'll see you soon.
