BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — Roughly 300 employees, along with state and local representatives helped dedicate a state-of-the-art building that will house the regional headquarters for Dominion Transmission, Inc.
“This is our commitment to be here long-term,” said Brian Sheppard, VP of Pipeline Operations for Dominion. “The community has served us very well and we’re excited to have a new facility as this built in White Oaks.”
The over $30 million, four-story, 106,000-square-foot building is located on a 7.5-acre site in the White Oaks Business Park in Bridgeport and with the finishing touches recently completed, the entire staff has been able to move in.
Sheppard says they will be able to cover the six states within the region all from Harrison County–where they have been located for over 100 years.
“Contained within this building is all of our support teams. We have our gas control, our gas storage, our engineering support teams, our field accounting, as well as our [human resources], government affairs and our IT and [supervisory control and data acquisition] are out here.”
State Secretary of Commerce Keith Burdette was one of the dignitaries on hand and said he expects to see more ribbons being cut in the future if the state can put in as much as Dominion has put into it.
He see the industry as a springboard to diversifying the economy.
“We want to make sure that product that comes out of the ground continues to create jobs,” he said. “That one well continues to create jobs for decades in West Virginia in the manufacturing, in chemicals, in plastics and all the other commodities that natural gas are so critical too.”
As for the specs of the building, one of the main priorities when planning the project was creating a safe, enjoyable work environment for employees, which is reflected in the conference center, free parking, exercise room with showers, lunch room and outdoor patio with fire place.
Another priority was to construct an energy efficient building.
“Our waste water system is specifically designed to save water, open lighting and a lot of the construction materials we used were recycled,” said Bob Orndorff, managing director for West Virginia and state local affairs for Dominion.
The company is applying for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification for the building, meaning it would be recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council as meeting criteria such as being connected to the neighboring community and ecosystem and how efficiently it uses water and energy.
If it were to be accepted, the building would be largest private sector structure to receive such a certification in the state.
March Westin of Morgantown was the developer and general contractor, Thrasher Engineering was the architect and Allegheny Design did the structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing design.