DURHAM, N.C. — Huntington’s bold plan for reinvention was pulled into a 15 minute presentation on stage in North Carolina Wednesday. Mayor Steve Williams was tasked with showing a panel of judges in the America’s Best Communities competition how Huntington has found a way forward which showed enough promise to earn the chance to compete for possibly millions of dollars in development funds.
Williams passionately laid out four key development plant strategically placed within the city.
“Three and a half years ago we initiated a series of four strategic revitalization projects to transform our most drastically affected neighborhoods and build upon the presence of Marshall,” Williams explained. “We’ve engaged a robust collaboration of citizens, neighborhoods and institutions from the civic, public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors. These four projects make up the Huntington Innovation Project, the ‘HIP’ revitalization.”
The four projects include transformation of abandoned factories along the city’s riverfront and adjacent to the Marshall University campus into modernized factories and a research hub for futuristic plastic products. Williams called it a new Poly Tech Center. The plans included revamping the city’s Highlawn neighborhood and enhancing the St. Mary’s Medical Center location.
“We plan to renew this riverfront for mixed use development, light industrial R and D, advanced manufacturing, and commercial enterprising utilizing the proximity to Marshall and the research capability of its STEM graduates,” said Williams.
Part two of the project was the redevelopment of the city’s Fairfield neighborhood. The plan included razing 1930’s era housing which has created urban blight and replacing it with modern housing at several different levels. The plan also added commercial locations like grocery stores and other vital businesses to benefit the neighborhood. The project is tied into nearby Cabell-Huntington Hospital.
Williams explained the plans for the other end of town included the West Edge Factory where a number of partnerships have created a new solar development, research, and training center alongside a facility aimed at giving out of work coal miners a new career.
The final piece of Williams’ vision for the committee included connecting all of those redevelopment projects, Marshall, the area hospitals, and the city’s downtown with broadband, high speed internet service.
“The PolyTech Center, the health innovation corridor, the solar roofing institute in the west end, all connected by the gigabit speed broadband are the factories of the future for Huntington, for the region, and absolutely for the nation,” Williams explained. “These plans are real. They’re not plans, they’re active projects. They’re moving forward. The projects themselves are green and they are sustainable and they are backed by a robust partnership of engaged citizens and community organizations.”
Williams voice cracked as he added back story to the presentation. He detailed the city’s darkest hours of the 1970 plane crash and the impact the disaster had on Huntington. The crash was followed by economic downturns which devastated the city. But playing on a popular theme in Huntington, the mayor vowed the “HIP” project would be the vehicle for the city to “rise from the ashes.”
“We know that the ‘HIP’ plans are ambitious,” said Williams. “I’ve been counseled by many that it would be much easier to concentrate on just one project for this competition. But make no mistake about it, the city and the surrounding region will only be transformed if all four projects are successfully developed. Frankly, I was willing to walk away from the project rather than compromise our vision.”
Huntington is one of 15 cities in the America’s Best Communities competition. Among the other competitors are Charleston and Portsmouth, Ohio. Those 15 will be narrowed to eight after this week’s presentations and the finalists will be reexamined by the committee next year to determine who will qualify for the top awards which included $3 Million as the top prize in community development grant money.