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A Charleston church is interested in buying about a quarter of a
12-year-old Corridor G business park that has struggled to bring in
manufacturers and commercial businesses.
The Bible Center Church has asked about the 88-acre parcel at the
southern end of the park. Among its neighbors would be a
mail-handling office, a regional jail and a 911 communications
center.
“I don’t think anyone 10-plus years ago thought that it would be
sold mostly for nonprofits and government buildings,” said County
Commissioner Dave Hardy, who sits on the BIDCO board of directors.
“But I don’t think anyone 10 years ago would have anticipated the
growth in that area.”
Hardy and other officials said Corridor G’s unexpected, but
explosive, retail growth, increased traffic in the area and hampered
their ability to bring light manufacturing and commercial businesses
to the park.
In March 1990, then-BIDCO Director Nick Bayne said such a park
could bring work to 3,000 people. Today, about 800 people work in
the park, said Bill Goode, current president of the group.
“It didn’t turn out to be everything we dreamed of,” Goode
said.
In the early ’90s, BIDCO officials hoped a regional jail and
mail-handling center for the U.S. Post Office would be anchors in
developing the little-used farm and forest area of southern Kanawha
County. Both facilities are still there. About 85 people work at the
jail and more than 300 at the post office, Goode said.
The park’s other residents include Telespectrum Worldwide Inc., a
telemarketing operation that employs about 500, and Motion
Industries, which moved from its Nitro location to a
30,000-square-foot building in the park last year.
But that was allowed only after BIDCO altered the park’s original
guidelines to allow Kanawha Valley businesses to move to the park.
Goode announced that decision last year saying the park had been
operating with “all our eggs in one basket.”
The park’s planners also hoped to attract offices to the area.
But the Kanawha Valley has more than 900,000 square feet in
high-tech office space available, according to BIDCO figures.
BIDCO Vice President Harry Mills has said the soft economy, the
burst of the Internet bubble, the telecommunications implosion,
financial turbulence in the airline industry after 9/11 and the
shrinking of the domestic chemicals industry caused the local
glut.
But in 1990, office space capable of handling hundreds of
employees was scarce, and the Kanawha Valley was competing with
other states to bring businesses into the state, Mills said.
“They went to other places,” Mills said, of the prospective
businesses. “We weren’t able to compete as successfully as we would
have liked.”
When the park was built, there was only one traffic light on
Corridor G, Mills said. Traffic congestion from the new retailers
turned off prospective buyers. The trip from the park to the
interstate would have been made longer by the congestion.
Bill Huffman, a former four-term city councilman who represented
South Hills, said he doubted too much traffic is a bad thing and
whether a church that wouldn’t pay taxes — in addition to government
offices in the park that don’t — would be a wise move for the
business park.
“I have nothing against the church, but my concern is that this
property transfer to any entity that does not pay taxes would
eliminate its potential for a tax base,” he said.
The asking price for the 88-acre parcel is $3.2 million, Hardy
said.
“This would only be a failure if the property didn’t net us the
value of the property,” Hardy said. “Right now, we only owe $160,000
on the property.”
The money from the sale would go toward new projects. Goode
cautioned that nothing is final, but said he is considering what
BIDCO would do with the money, including buying smaller sites,
possibly near interstate interchanges. He also said BIDCO could use
the funds in association with other groups to develop multiple-use
areas with homes, businesses and recreation.
“That’s my gut. To do smaller more flexible developments,” he
said. “We can’t put all our eggs in one basket.”
To contact staff writer Paul Wilson, use e-mail or call
348-5179. |
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