Bridgevalley plans to move downtown (Thomas: to rent, school, tax)

[Chriscross309]

I’m very surprised by this, considering that I’ve heard from several Bridgevalley staff that they were committed to working things out at the Tech Park.

The plan is to renovate the Stone & Thomas building. This is good because that building needs some life, and it will put up to a thousand people downtown during the day. Bad thing is there will be no parking. You should see how full BVs parking lot gets currently with students and staff. There isn’t enough parking close to there accommodate the professors, let alone 1000 students. They might need to look into building a garage on Lee street.

[mensaguy]

A parking building just up from the State Tax Department would probably get a lot of monthly parking passes sold. The state government charges employees for parking and then subsidizes the costs in other parking buildings downtown. With the school and the post office right there at the same intersection, some parking seems like an obvious need.

[CRWMSPPGH]

what about the old Commerce Bank parking garage across the street? That building is virtually empty and there has to be a ton of available free space in there to rent. BV could probably even expand across the street into that tower also in the next few years if they fill up the S&T building fairly quickly.

[Chriscross309]

Originally Posted by CRWMSPPGH

what about the old Commerce Bank parking garage across the street? That building is virtually empty and there has to be a ton of available free space in there to rent. BV could probably even expand across the street into that tower also in the next few years if they fill up the S&T building fairly quickly.

I don't think BV is looking to rent. The current mess they have with the Tech Park is something that is driving this move, so renting is most likely off the table.

From my understanding, the Tech Park was gifted to the state of WV with the intent for it to be used for education purposes. The state supposedly gave the current building BV uses to the school, and BV spent millions renovating it. Later, the state gave control of the Tech Park over to a development group looking to bring tech companies in. They then pushed for BV to start paying rent. BV laughed at them, and now their is a mess over who actually owns/controls the building BV is in.

That is why BV wants to move. I believe that this will fall thru, because they won't have the resources necessary to bring the Stone & Thomas building up to shape it needs to be.

[bballjunkie]

I would think they could potentially run into a whole bunch of code compliance issues converting it to a school. Just a thought because I don't know the codes that well.