POCA, W.Va. — An area nonprofit working to strengthen the economy across the nine counties it serves in the region is now set to buy a former industrial manufacturing building to redevelop it from the ground up.
Advantage Valley is in the process of purchasing the former Vossloh Track Building also known as the Union Boiler Plant near Poca in Putnam County.
Formally servicing the John Amos Power Plant, Advantage Valley President and CEO Terrell Ellis said they now have plans to revitalize and re-use it.
“We’ve entered into a purchase agreement to purchase and renovate the building, it’s an 118,000 square foot industrial building with about 7 acres associated with it,” Ellis said.
The former manufacturing building boasts port and rail access along the Kanawha River, which Ellis said will now be going to attracting new or expanding companies to the area who are looking into relocating in West Virginia.
However, she said finding enough useful space in the region is currently a luxury and this purchase helps solve that issue.
“We have a severe shortage of industrial properties in the region and I have companies that are looking for space and there isn’t any,” she said.
Ellis said the building has been sitting vacant for about 4 or 5 years now and it’s deteriorating. The nonprofit plans to put it back into productive use so they can house companies that will create more jobs for the region.
She said because the construction is not new, which new construction is currently very expensive, they will be able to renovate it and lease it out at an affordable rate.
Ellis said they see it as a priority to take advantage of buildings like the former Vossloh building that still prove to be useful and relatively inexpensive to redevelop.
“Because of our topography here we don’t have a lot of large tracks of vacant land that you can build industrial properties on, and so anything that we have like that that’s just sitting there and not being used is a shame, because that’s really an asset for our region,” Ellis said.
Ellis said if company is interested in leasing the space to call her at (304)546-7323 or (304)352-1165 or email her at terrell@advantagevalley.com.