Several significant projects that have been discussed by elected leaders in the Friendly City for multiple years are expected to begin taking shape during this new year.
Wheeling City Manager Bob Herron, in fact, believes 2021 will be a year that residents will readily remember.
“2021 is really cued up to be a very instrumental year in the city’s history,” Herron said. “That’s because we have several significant projects lined up that are expected to take place this year. For example, there’s the streetscape project that will improve our downtown area a great deal.
“I am absolutely confident that project will begin in 2021, and it is going to end up being a $35 million investment in the downtown,” he said. “We’ve really already started it with all of the infrastructure work that’s been taking place along Main and Market streets for the past several months. Plus, we just sold bonds to finance the water line replacement that’s going to be a $5.5 million project. That project is going to get started in the next few months.”
Smooth Sailing
It is a bumpy ride to say the least along Main and Market streets in downtown Wheeling at this time, but a two-year streetscape project will repair that problem and many more.
In 2015 when Andy McKenzie was Wheeling’s mayor and Earl Ray Tomblin was the governor of West Virginia, a simple paving project morphed into a complete makeover for the main arteries in the city’s downtown. When McKenzie initially announced the streetscape project, though, it was listed as an $8.8 million initiative, but the cost grew by more than $25 million because of issues with vaults that rest beneath sidewalks.
“The plans and specifications have been finalized and have been submitted to the central office in Charleston,” Herron explained. “I am sure there will be comments from the officials in Charleston because all of the design work took place within District 6. Once those comments are considered here in the district, the project will go out for bid in about two months.
“It’s an exciting project for the city of Wheeling, and it is something we’ve been working on for several years now,” he said. “New signalization, sidewalks, curbs, and the ADA compliant ramps are all included, and there will be storm sewer separation on Market Street. Plus, the streetscape project will extend to the on-ramp and off-ramp for W.Va. Route 2.”
800,000 Square Feet
Without much of a warning, the Ohio Valley Medical Center was closed in September 2019, and more than 700 employees lost jobs. Alecto Healthcare then shuttered East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry about three weeks later and left almost 500 more people without employment.
In May 2020, however, Dr. John Johnson was announced as the new owner of EORH, and the facility soon will be a fully functioning hospital but will add units for those needing alcohol and drug rehabilitation and psychiatric care. The city of Wheeling then entered into a purchase agreement with Medical Properties Trust (MPT) in June and has been marketing the six buildings ever since.
“The city has owned the OVMC campus for six months now, and we still are getting our arms around that,” Herron said. “We have been maintaining the buildings, and we are still learning a lot about those structures, and we have developed a very nice website that we will use to help market those properties. We will be launching that site in the very near future.
“There have been a lot of conversations that have taken place about each of those buildings, and there has been a lot of interest expressed with that campus,” he said. “Of course, the city of Wheeling worked with Youth Services System so they could have the Winter Freeze Shelter in the former Hillcrest building and that will take place until mid-March.”
Moving on Up
For decades, the personnel working for the Wheeling Police Department have been strangled by a lack of space inside the Ohio County Courthouse, but that is expected to change in 2021, as well.
Once the OVMC deal was completed with MPT, Chief Shawn Schwertfeger began planning to transform the Valley Professional Center into a new headquarters that will feature more than 34,000 square feet. The space inside the courthouse, located on the first floor, is just 4,600 square feet and is without proper space for amenities like an evidence area and a lunchroom. The same can be said for the Wheeling Fire Department, but the fix for that is in the mix, too.
“Soon we will have a new police headquarters in the former Valley Professional Center, and right now we’re at about 50 to 60 percent complete with the design phase,” Herron said. “We have the floor plans established, and we’re very comfortable with the layouts for those three floors. It is going to be a big improvement for our police departments and its officers and civilian employees.
“We also have a layout and floor plan for a fire department headquarters,” he said. “We also have a drawing of what that new fire headquarters will look like although we have not yet finalized the site where it will be constructed. That decision, though, will be made soon, and I know the chief hopes that we can break ground for the new headquarters this year.”
Heated Sidewalks
At lunch time, the stretch of Market Street in front of the Schmulbach Building was lined with people who were employed by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel or by one of the other businesses inside.
At 12 floors, it is the tallest building in downtown Wheeling, but it has been vacant for the past seven years. That is expected to change, however, because Coon Restoration out of Ohio plans to create more than 100 loft apartments and commercial space on the street level.
“In 2020, the city through the Ohio Valley Area Development Corp. purchased the former Chris Miller Building, the former Chase Bank building, and the vacant lot next to the bank in preparation of the renovation project on the Wheeling-Pitt building for the loft apartments,” Herron said. “When purchasing those two buildings, the thought was that if the apartment project didn’t move forward, the city would still have two buildings that are in very good shape.
“That loft project is still very much alive, and we are very hopeful that we’ll see the beginning of the renovations this year,” he said. “Once that does take place, the city will move forward with the development of a parking structure for the people living in those loft apartments. We are going to try and save the Chris Miller building because it was a furniture store for a lot of years, and it has a wide-open floor plan.”
