What started as a vision just over a decade ago has become reality.
Fifty acres off I-79’s Exit 155 was annexed into the city of Westover, incorporated into an expanded TIF district and given a name — The Gateway.
Today, save one parcel measuring less than an acre, it’s all spoken for.
“It’s all sold, built or getting ready to be built,” developer Cliff Sutherland explained, noting one of the development’s most exciting projects is weeks from opening.
“Paw Prints is moving into a state-of-the-art, 24/7 pet hospital,” Sutherland said of the longtime veterinary clinic now located on Mileground Road.
According to Sutherland, the hospital will have imaging equipment found nowhere else in West Virginia.
The facility will measure some 7,000 square feet and be located between Hobby Lobby and Joe Romeo Honda.
“You’d have to travel north of Pittsburgh to find anything like this. They’ll be able to do a lot of surgeries there. It will be a destination hospital. You’ll have a lot of disposable income people coming here to take advantage of that,” he said.
The hospital will be located near another new addition, Rhino Self Storage, which offers indoor, climate-controlled space for rent.
The Healing Center, a medical cannabis shop complete with a drive-through window, should be submitting plans in the coming days and be ready for business by year’s end.
Additionally, Clear Mountain Bank has a spot ready for construction but is awaiting word on long-sought changes to Exit 155 and the expanded corridor between the Star City Bridge and The Gateway.
Those are just the new and coming attractions.
The development already has well over a dozen businesses catering to needs ranging from children’s clothes to tax services, hobby supplies, vehicles of all types, sporting goods, food and lodging.
Triple S Harley-Davidson, now Mountaineer Harley-Davidson, led the pack, opening its doors in the new development on July 18, 2013.
“It has been a success. Maybe not as quick as we wanted, and I can say I’ll never be a developer again,” Sutherland said, laughing. “But it sure is an attractive development, and there are certainly a lot of people employed up there. The B&O taxes going into Westover and the property taxes, it’s a significant economic impact for the area.”
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