BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The Beckley City Council convened on Tuesday for a session at which several agenda items were discussed, not the least significant of which was a request to rezone parts of Central Avenue and Virginia Street as part of property development plan.
Beckley realtor and businessman Brian Christopher Brown of has generated a great deal of excitement from residents and local leadership alike with his plan to convert the now-stagnant area into a hub of commerce, entertainment and recreation for the City of Beckley.
LOOTPRESS reached out to Brown who took time to discuss the origins of the idea, as well as the vision he and his team ultimately have for the area. The potential of the properties, he says, began to reveal itself over time as he would frequently pass by during his regular commute.
“Every time I would drive by it I would think, ‘this is what this needs to be,’ he explains. “Then at the end of September I was called to list the building there on the corner, and at that time all of the buildings were available. I just kind of saw that as divine intervention, and we purchased our first building in October.”
The collection of properties has been envisioned as a central resource for the City of Beckley through which residents can satisfy an array of needs including the buying and selling of local goods, grabbing a bite to eat, taking in some entertainment, and even soaking in some of the rich history of the Southern WV region.
“We now have both sides of the street zones for business class, which makes us available to open for business,” Brown tells LOOTPRESS, detailing plans for the area which he hopes will serve to accommodate various vendors and even a museum specifically dedicated to the life and work of legendary singer/songwriter and West Virginia hero, Bill Withers. The museum, if successfully established, would be the first of its kind.
“We’re going to do restaurants and we’ll have vendors there who will be selling their wares, as well as different shops. There will be an art gallery, a kids’ corner, and we are hoping to secure Bill Withers family to provide the first Bill Withers Museum. Then from that, we will do a Southern West Virginia Music Hall of Fame – kind of a museum piece that will go through the area. We’re going to look at doing a capitol market style space also that will have outdoor dining and a stage for performances. We want to have art walks, and we really just want to make the whole area accessible for walking to the greater Beckley community. So, those are some of the things that we want to do.”
LOOTPRESS also got in touch City of Beckley CFO, Record-Treasurer, and Planning & Zoning Commission Board member Billie Trump, who expressed enthusiasm for project following the vote from City Council to move the plan forward.
“Mr. Brown and his investors are following a game plan that has been successful in other cities, that turns a neglected area into a destination with restaurants and entertainment,” Trump says. “This would be able to provide another attraction for the City and County for visitors to the new national park.”
Brown has attracted the interest of several local investors in the project, which seeks to invigorate an area which previously saw success as an industry hub due in no small part to its proximity to the railway. Economic shifts have left many of the previously active properties abandoned, however, as Trump explains.
“The area in question was rezoned from manufacturing to business. Many years ago, this area had manufacturing concerns and was even served by a rail spur to accommodate the industry there. But over time manufacturing moved out and the buildings were repurposed or left vacant.”
Despite cooperation from the city itself, Brown acknowledges that the area’s prior function in conjunction with the railroad presents certain challenges in terms of implementing a new vision for the location.
“When the trains came through it was very different, and we’re experiencing some of the challenges of that. Because technically, the railroad owns up to the door to the front facade,” he points out. “So, it becomes difficult to make plans for exterior work when we have to then engage with the city to be able to create some of these sidewalks and allowances that we’d like to have there.”
In spite of these challenges, Brown acknowledges the unique and fascinating history of the location, many facets of which have been lost to time.
“It’s very interesting how the train cars would come and stop and then the freight would be loaded directly from the building onto the trains. It was very fascinating to think one of the buildings we got was the Bosco building right as you go down the hill on the left. That was the old Nehi bottling plant. They would load the Nehi soda directly from the building onto the trains and it was off to the next stop. The economics of the time was a lot different than today.”
Although the scope of the location presents a broad range of opportunities, Brown and company are still looking to optimize their utilization of the area in hopes of bringing the absolute most to the city as possible while maintaining a degree of economic viability to ensure sustainability.
“We’re looking at and figuring out ways to really use spaces in more than one way so that we can maximize all of the space that we have there. When we initially looked at it, we were like, ‘wow, it’s six buildings and it’s tons of space.’ But we have to look at different ways of monetizing the space so that we’re able to hit our financial returns to make this successful.”
Regarding to process of the project moving forward, Brown reveals that he and his team already have several irons in the fire in what stands to be perhaps the most substantial endeavor of the businessman’s career.
“Things are moving relatively fast. We are heavily engaged with architects and engineers. We just got a new architectural proposal, so we are looking at a lot of different possibilities. We’re very excited about being able to start tearing things down and building things up. This is the largest undertaking that I’ve ever had the privilege to work on and I’m certainly excited to get this underway.”