West Virginia University Hospitals do a lot of laundry — most, if not all, in a 40,000-square-foot facility in the Morgantown Industrial Park.
Republic Services hauls countless tons of trash and recycling in and around Morgantown, and all of it passes through Republic’s transfer station in the Morgantown Industrial Park.
SI Group, formerly Adavant, claims to be the world’s largest producer of liquid phosphites, specialty antioxidants and additives, and a lot of that work takes place, you guessed it, in the Morgantown Industrial Park.
Nearly 400 people go to work in the MIP every day, according to Glenn Adrian, who purchased the park with his brother in 2006.
Central Supply (concrete), City Plumbing and Heating, Gerrick Electric, Javins Corp. (drilling), Bill Snoddy Transport (barging) and a number of others all contribute to the nearly $90 million tax base for the 500-acre park.
Much of that development was made possible through the TIF, or tax increment finance, a development process through which the tax liability of the district is locked in for a period up to 30 years. Additional tax increment generated through improvements are then reinvested in the district in the form of infrastructure.
Along with funding improvements directly, the TIF process allows developers to make investments with the promise of TIF reimbursement.
“We were able to utilize a TIF with the help of then-Gov. Joe Manchin and the county commission to be able to go out and get money to improve the roads and expand the water and sanitary and gas lines to open up property that has since been used by the transfer station, by WVU laundry, Gerrick Electric. That has all come to the park as a result of that initial TIF,” Adrian said.
Now Adrian and others are again looking to the TIF process to expand the MIP and help facilitate the expansion of an I-79 interchange that would open an additional 120 acres of developable space in the back half of the park.
Adrian said he’s hopeful there will be news in the coming weeks regarding an agreement with the state that will allow initial studies of an expanded River Road/Harmony Grove interchange.
Russ Rogerson, president of the Morgantown Area Partnership, said there’s a lot riding on the park’s expansion, including some 700 additional jobs.
“We are working on a significant project that we’re in competition with Ohio on. Obviously, it’s large enough that it would have a significant impact on our community in both investment and employment,” Rogerson said.
Adrian previously called the potential tenant a “clean manufacturer” interested in a facility starting at 300,000 square feet as well as a working partnership with WVU engineering and ag sciences.
Further, Rogerson said the expanded interchange would also open up approximately 400 acres along I-79 for new development.
But the benefits go beyond economics, according to Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora.
Currently, traffic accessing the MIP from the interstate must travel through Westover to Dupont Road. The only other route for heavy truck traffic accessing the park is through Morgantown and up River Road, which is slip-prone.
Sikora points out that both Westwood Middle School and Skyview Elementary School are located on River Road.
“With River Road and the issues there, if you’ve only got one way in and one way out, in an emergency situation, that would be a problem,” Sikora said. “You have two schools on River Road, so if you have an emergency, that’s an issue. Expanding that interchange would totally open up the back end of the park, but it would also significantly fix a lot of access issues with Westover and River Road and that whole area.”
Which, unlike the rumble of heavy trucks rolling past Westover City Hall, is music to Mayor Dave Johnson’s ears.
“If you stand in front of city hall for 15, 20 minutes, you’ll see at least 10 large vehicles go by that probably wouldn’t go by if that exit existed, so it’s good for everybody. It’ll be good for the park, but it’ll be good for the truckers as well because they have a hard time with some of the turns, coming from the interstate down Fairmont Road, then turning onto Dupont there,” Johnson said. “I think it would be an advantage for everybody and I hope they can get it done. We definitely support it here in Westover.”
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