A piece of Kenova that's sat empty for decades is finally getting built on. Local officials broke ground Tuesday on nine townhouse-style duplexes, 18 units in all, on the former Breece Veneer property on Sycamore Street (via WSAZ).
"This was always Breece Veneer, and it went away and it sat here dormant," Mayor Tim Bias told the station.
The builder is Thomas Brothers Real Estate. Co-owner Luke Thomas said each unit will have three bedrooms and two bathrooms and rent for about $1,500 a month. He expects the duplexes to be ready by April, weather permitting.
Getting an old industrial site ready for houses took some work up front. Thomas credited HADCO, the Huntington Area Development Council, with handling that side of it. "HADCO got a grant from the EPA and federal funding and they clearly handled everything," he said. George Carico, environmental manager at Marshall University, walked through the testing done on the land and said "all the steps have been taken to make sure it's all ready to go."
Marshall is one of two homes for West Virginia's state brownfields assistance program. The Legislature set up the West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Centers at Marshall and WVU in 2005 to help communities redevelop old industrial and commercial sites, and over their first 20 years they helped bring in more than $50 million in EPA brownfields funding, according to WVU. The centers provide technical help so local groups can understand the process and line up money for cleanup.
Bias said growth at Marshall has pushed up demand for housing in the area, and he's hoping new residents will help the local economy. "This is going to be a great thing for the community," he said.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is a small-builder brownfield deal, and that's the lesson. A local real estate company is putting up 18 units on a site that probably would've stayed empty if a development council and a university center hadn't handled the testing and grant money first. The builder came in after the hard environmental part was done.
If you build in the Tri-State area, ask HADCO and the West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Centers what sites they're already working on. Old industrial lots near Huntington can come with cleanup paid for by federal grants, and that can turn a site nobody wants into one that pencils. With 18 new units going up in Kenova, local subs in framing, roofing, HVAC and finish work have a reason to call Thomas Brothers, too.