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A huge project that is planned for Huntington to include a hotel/conference center, a 2,500 seat baseball field for Marshall/Minor League team, restaurant/retail space, a federal law enforcement training center, transportation training facility, extended-stay housing, and a research and development facility for Marshall University along with the potential for a new track and soccer field and indoor practice facility for the football team. Hopefully everything lines up with this and it all works out for the maximum potential. Sounds like things are in motion and hopefully will continue to do so. This would be great for Marshall, Huntington and the state of WV.
This will be great for Marshall. I had friends who played on Marshall's baseball team and they were always bitching about the field being so far away from the school. I don't know about bringing a minor league team to Huntington, but having the stadium at minor league standards (for lack of a better word) would be a good idea.
Everything else sounds good too, except the restuarant/retail thing. That was supposed to be Pullman, which has a ton of resturants and very little retail. I don't think it's panning out like people thought it would. There have been some additional retail added to the general downtown area, but it's really not pulling people in. There's already PLENTY of retail space downtown (in historic buildings!) that needs to be filled before more is built.
I agree that the historic downtown space needs to be filled up but that is happening. They are talking that this thing may take 2-3 years to get everything fully built so that gives those spaces even more time to fill up. It is already happening in several spots downtown. Where they have redone 4th Ave in those 2 sections for the Old Main corridor, several new businesses have popped up and a new event hall for receptions, etc is about to open as well. Wright's is about to reopen, a new grocery/deli on 3rd Ave is about to open and 2 other places are being worked on in the Frederick building. Dr. Touma now owns the old Stone and Thomas building and is renovating it and Marshall's art department may move all of its programs into that building, which will bring more people downtown. They also want upper floors of other buildings as space for staff and students to live. If you have places like this new planned development rather than just Pullman or just downtown, it gives people more incentive to go downtown because they can hit several different shops rather than just a select few. It makes it more "worth your time" so to speak if there is more available.
And to get new development to happen, it helps to have things like this. If someone sees a new $250 million development, then they are more likely to put their money into something here as it might not seem so risky. This also makes Huntington more attractive for potential residents and MU students and then you increase the number of people in the area taking advantage of the shops and restaurants, etc. If you look at Pullman, especially on the weekend, it's pulling a ton of people in. People who weren't going down there before because there was nothing there, it was an empty parking lot. And when you look at the redevelopment that has gone in across the street, I think it has been very successful. It may not be happening as quick as people want it to but things like this do take time.
Here's another link about the development that talks about how the Port Authority is one of the driving factors behind this.
Man this state really shoots itself in the foot sometimes. Luckily, the parties involved are still moving forward even though the state is waiting until August to decide if they want to contribute money. They are also only planning to give less than half of the requested funds. To use the excuse that the developers do not have formal agreements with Marshall University and the West Virginia Public Port Authority when those entities are involved in the whole process is ridiculous. They've got a good plan together as they have been working on it for over a year.
Man this state really shoots itself in the foot sometimes. Luckily, the parties involved are still moving forward even though the state is waiting until August to decide if they want to contribute money. They are also only planning to give less than half of the requested funds. To use the excuse that the developers do not have formal agreements with Marshall University and the West Virginia Public Port Authority when those entities are involved in the whole process is ridiculous. They've got a good plan together as they have been working on it for over a year.
I think we can all agree that state politics (like national politics in recent years) is filled with self serving bozos. In many cases they do more harm than good, all in their own self interests.
It is so sad, because they are undoing 250 years of selfless sacrifice on the part of others
to advance their personal agendas without regard for the wishes of the people.
$26.6 million in tax-free bonds approved with more potentially on the way. Hopefully that will get this project started sooner rather than later. This will be great for Huntington.
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Bonds Approved
