sept-2017

202 203 WEIRTON, WEST VIRGINIA was revitalizing our community. More than a de- cade back, the counties and the city got together and formed a business development corporation, a non-profit group whose sole mission was to bring in grants, obtain businesses, and redevelop property such as brownfields, and turn the sites into usable properties. That organization wasn’t very successful. In 2009, it did a revamp and hired a new director, who has been amazing.” Where Weirton Steel was, on the outskirts of the city, there was brownfield grant money and some redevelopment and jobs coming in, but nowhere near what should have been happen- ing, given the city’s size and population of about 19,700. The big concern from the Mayor and City Council was the city’s lack of focus on plan- ning for the future.When Blosser arrived, one of the first things they did was create a Planning & Development Department, that immediately transformed how they worked with the business community and potential developers. Blosser says, “It was all a matter of efficiency. Now that we’ve done that, over the last six to seven months we’ve had two major international companies decide to call Weirton home. One be- ing Bidell Gas Compression out of Calgary, Alber- ta. They are renovating a 100,000-square-foot fa- cility that was the former Weirton Steel machine shop, and expect to employ about 130 people. They also announced they are locating their U.S. headquarters here, so they will have office space and everything else with this facility.” Being a former brownfield site meant a deal had to be struck with the city, the Business Devel- opment Corporation, the West Virginia Economic Development Office, the U.S. Environmental Pro- tection Agency, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection; a whole grouping of individuals involved in taking that property from brownfield to redevelopment. The next major announcement was in the Three Springs Business Park– also a former brownfield area that was once the headquarters of Weirton Steel and National Steel. About 500 employees worked there, altogether, in both operations. That facility is gone, and the site is now home to the Rue 21 distribution center; an onsite bakery that delivers pepperoni rolls across the state; and Pietro Florentini from Italy, that make valves, fittings, and pressure regulators for the home gas industry, the natural gas industry, and horizontal drilling that’s occurring in West Virginia, Ohio, and