MORGANTOWN – Russ Rogerson, president and CEO of the Morgantown Area Partnership, told members of the Monongalia County Commission Wednesday that the Richwood redevelopment project has the green light.
But, to continue the analogy, it takes a little money for gasoline.
On consecutive days, the Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Commission each allocated $500,000 to the project, now called the East End Village Development Project.
That amount, totaling $1 million, will be held in a mandatory cash reserve as a prerequisite to the refinancing package the Monongalia County Development Authority is seeking.
“The redevelopment authority has spent all its cash on this project over the last three and a half years. We have real estate assets, but we are not in a position to deploy them,” Rogerson told commissioners.
Rogerson explained that the reserve dollars would not be needed unless “we do not make any sales after one year from the date of refinancing.” As collateral, MCDA will provide the 90-acre site near Morgantown Municipal Airport that is slated as the future site of the approximately 54-acre I-68 Commerce Park.
He said the property was valued at $1.7 million in its current condition and was a withdrawal site for the ongoing runway extension project in Morgantown.
The concept, Rogerson said, is that in the worst case scenario, the city and county would become joint owners of this land.
The MCDA is one of the organizations that make up the Morgantown Area Partnership. It initiated the Richwood project by purchasing about 10 contiguous acres on the doorstep of downtown Morgantown from the Giuliani family for $11.8 million in 2020.
On Tuesday, Rogerson told the Morgantown City Council that estimates suggest up to $100 million could be invested in the revitalized area, which would transform acres of old homes filled with student apartments into a well-integrated mix of residential and retail.
Earlier this month, the city signed a $548,500 contract with Reclaim Co. to demolish the approximately 57 buildings currently in the way.
The MCDA and its partners will celebrate the start of this process on Thursday with a public meeting at 451 E. Prospect Street beginning at 2 p.m.
“We’re moving forward. We’re going to see positive development and achieve our ultimate goal, which is to revitalize an area to add value both financially and in terms of service and make it a community asset,” Rogerson said. “It connects our neighborhoods to downtown and the WVU campus and creates a new gateway to the heart of our community.”
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