December 2016 | Business View Magazine

62 63 whether or not it comes back.” Naturally, the loss of the coal industry has had a profound impact on the area’s population.“And it’s particularly true in the areas where it’s produced the most and that is the southern counties of West Virginia, which have been losing population for years, and now it’s really dropping off dramatically,” Edwards says, ruefully.“There are, literally, historic towns in southern West Virginia that are turning into ghost towns. And as you might expect, the loss of population has created a somewhat stagnant real estate economy, which is the area that affects our work the most,” he continues. “Just recently, we’ve had an uptick in the vacancy rate of downtown buildings in general, and Class A buildings, specifi- cally, with engineering and energy-re- lated firms either leaving entirely, or down-sizing their presence. So, in terms of redeveloping the community, we not only have the normal challenges that every community faces –blight, older properties, low income neighborhoods, aging infrastructure –we also have a very weak economy. So, we have a real challenge in making things happen when the economy is not growing.” That being said, Edwards points to a number of current and ongoing initia- tives in a city that is determined to meet its challenges, head on.“Probably the greatest one from an economic devel- opment standpoint is one that’s being driven by the city itself and not by our agency,” he says.“And that is the com- plete reconstruction and expansion of the Civic Center. The city built the Civic Center in the late 1950s and over the years has expanded it. It has an arena for sports and concerts; it has meeting space and ballroom space, and a small theater. So, it’s a multi-use facility. But, it’s gotten tired and it’s not competitive with other facilities in the greater region. So, the city is spending in the range of Recently, in spite of the economic conditionswe’re operating under, we’ve been successful at acquiring, improving, and getting properties back into private hands and redeveloped. Our goal is to get themback into private hands as soon as possible. JIM EDWARDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CURA 80 to 90 million dollars to expand and improve the facility to make it much more competitive for major meetings and events, drawing those dollars from far outside the area. So, that’s the largest effort, and probably one of the quickest ways to generate new dollars into the community, because it only takes a couple of years to get the facility improved and attracting new invest- ment, as opposed to job creating,which takes much longer. “There are two other projects that the city is pursuing that we are in support of,”Edwards continues.“A river runs through the center of Charleston–the Kanawha River–and a rather nice boulevard runs along that river from the west side, through downtown, to the east end of the community. So, the city is working on a project that will create a really high-quality pedestrian/ bicycle amenity along the river,which is not only for current residents, but will make the community more attractive to new people coming from outside. In addition, there is a pedestrian improvement, currently under construction,right in the heart of downtown,which leads from the traditional retail shopping street–Capitol St.–to the mall, and then on to connect with the Civic Center.And CURA is contributing $600,000 to that effort because we see the benefit that it will have for attracting tenants and investment to the downtown. And, coincidentally, this pedestrian spine goes right past a building that CURA purchased to get it out of the hands of a previous owner and into the hands of a motivated developer.” While the City of Charleston does not have its own Economic Development Department, Edwards says that CURA works closely with its Planning Department, as well as with two other local organizations that are also working to help rebuild Charleston’s economy. One is The Charleston Area Alliance, which is a private, non-profit, that basically functions as a Chamber of Commerce. “It has a recruitment arm, just like most chambers do, and, of course, it has the normal events and services for its members. And it has a community development component that focuses on downtown and nearby neighborhoods,”Edwards says.“The oth- er organization is the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Charleston. They are the ones who promote the area beyond the county and state.” Together, CURA, and these other organizations, are providing the vision and leadership that continue to encourage the revi- talization, restoration, and rebuilding of the City of Charles- ton, West Virginia. CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA PREFERRED VENDORS n Spilman, Thomas & Battle www.spilmanlaw.com n GAI Consultants, Inc. www.gaiconsultants.com