FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — The Urban Renewal Authority is hoping a $50,000 investment in Wolf Creek Park is going to lead to the creation of new businesses and new jobs in Fayette County.
“The goal here is to create jobs,” Kelly Jo Drey, Fayette County Resource Coordinator for the county’s Urban Renewal Authority, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Not only would it generate property tax revenue from having a new business out there, but all the economic activity that goes along with that in terms of new jobs.”
Wolf Creek Park is a 1,000 acre mixed-use development that intends to create opportunities for businesses and residential housing.
The site already home to a number of businesses–including local award-winning brewery Bridge Brew Works, a veterinarian clinic, and a multinational excavation office belonging to Robbins Company.
The Fayette County 911 Center is also located in Wolf Creek Park.
The newly renovated area is seven acres in total–part of the Park’s long-term master plan that launched in 2006.
“Ideally, we would have that whole seven acres developed within the next couple of years because that’s something, if we had an interested buyer, we could turn that around pretty quickly,” Drey said.
Drey said it was meant for one business, but could likely be apportioned out to two or three depending on how much land a new business venture would need.
“The implementation of that master plan is something that has been int he works for a number of years, and so this seven acre site that we’ve been working on most recently is one component of that larger plan for the area,” she said.
According to Drey, the key part of this investment is the potential for exponential return. The project could not have been completed without the help of the National Guard’s 601st Engineer Support Company.
“They are training to be ready to build things that are necessary–army bases or airstrips or whatever needs to be done,” Dray said. “That’s what they are training to fulfill–their war-time mission and making sure their soldiers are prepared to operate this equipment.”
That training means the labor comes free of charge, and Fayette County pays for everything else through reallocated coal severance tax dollars. The National Guard’s work began June 5 and ended on June 17. The labor included moving 100,000 tons of dirt.
“I think [The National Guard] have to be very sensitive to competing with private industry,” Drey said. “If the county had plenty of money to do these type of projects, then we would just bid this project out and hire a private firm to do it.”
It’s a service provided by the National Guard only for areas of great need where the project otherwise could not be completed.
“The National Guard tries to be very sensitive to the fact that they don’t want to be perceived as taking business away from the private sector,” she said. “They really try to focus on assisting with projects that would not be able to come to fruition without their support.”
Fayette County has dealt with a number of economic concerns over the past few years–especially as coal dwindled down in the county.
“We have had a couple of inquiries about the new property, about the new site,” Drey said. “Nothing specific that is lined up.”
Drey said she could not offer specifics regarding who had inquired into the availability of the newly renovated land.