WHEELING, W.Va. — As the steel industry declined, Wheeling faced significant economic and population challenges. However, efforts over the past decade aim to reverse these trends and rejuvenate the area.
“I really believe that as many as the last 25 years, the city has been gradually planting many, many seeds,” Mayor Denny Magruder said. “One of my biggest jobs is to water those seeds.”
Ward 6 Councilman Dave Palmer, part of a council elected in 2016, emphasized the importance of infrastructure.
“When I first sat down with mayor-elect Glenn Elliott at the time, he said, you know, what do you think our biggest problem is? And without a hesitation, I said, infrastructure,” Palmer said.
The city has seen major construction projects, including the I-70 bridges and a $35 million streetscape project.
“We also did a lot of infrastructure in recreation, in playgrounds, in ballfields, so trying to do things to make Wheeling more appealing to the outside people, because not everybody looks at the pretty building. You know, people come in and they look at what, what do you have here, as far as your schools, your roads, you know, so on and so forth. So, you’ve got to have good water, sewer, police, fire,” Palmer said.
A new parking garage at Market and 11th Streets, featuring 290 spots and space for shops, recently opened despite community pushback.
“Well, if you go look, there’s already 100 cars in it, you know, and it’s just opened up,” Palmer said.
With the growth, though, has come growing pains, specifically for small, locally owned businesses downtown.
Many places went from trying to survive the pandemic straight into Streetscape construction.
Matt Welsch owns Vagabond Kitchen. He says every day has been a struggle over the last few years for his restaurant.
“My biggest concern in 2019 was the work on the work on the interstate, which most people don’t remember happened now, because it’s been done for so long. And then March of 2020 came, and the bottom fell out,” he said. “And we just worked to stay alive take care of the employees here.
“We have been stuck in pandemic levels of business since 2020 and the only reason that that makes sense is because of the Streetscape Project. So it is, it’s like it would be easier just to rip the Band-Aid off quick, and this is like the slowest Band-Aid rip ever, and we’re just trying to power through.”
Like many other businesses downtown, Welsch says they’ve seen a huge drop off in revenue but he’s hopeful things will change when the Streetscape wraps up later this year.
“What I’m seeing now that I haven’t seen before, is a lot of actual things happening,” he said. “The parking garage, the new developments, the new buildings. It’s not just plans; it’s not just talk. It’s reality to me. That’s something I can sink my teeth in and I can hold on a little bit longer to see it come to fruition.”
What’s next? Regional Economic Development Partnership, or RED, will have a hand in many of the plans.
President and CEO Josh Jefferson says RED’s role is to fill in gaps with partnerships.
“So, I think from our standpoint, you know, where we started to really see some synergy among a lot of different regional organizations, and we obviously being RED, we’ve got great partners at the state level and at the local level and our federal level. So really, we felt like there was a lot of momentum of those organizations and government entities, both private, nonprofit, really starting to pull the rope together,” he said.
Moving forward, a big focus is on the regional cancer center that will be built by WVU Medicine on the site of the former OVMC building.
“One of the things we do see real positive gains is our major employers, investments that we see happening, and I’m going to use WVU Medicine as a proud example. So, the investments that WVU Medicine is making in all of West Virginia, but specifically in the Northern Panhandle, is a game changer,” Jefferson said.
But Wheeling still has some deficits that need to filled and faced, like housing and childcare — and officials know that.
“Now let’s just be quite candid,” Magruder said. “We need more jobs. We need more and better housing. We need affordable housing. We need single family homes. But as I said, these seeds are going to help produce that, and they’re starting to grow.”
“Right now, we’re working on housing, and housing is a significant issue across the state, but we’re excited we’re actually playing a little bit of a role in that right now, working with a lot of partners, our county commissions, state of West Virginia,” Jefferson said. “So, we’re hoping to address that so we can capture the population growth just as much as we’re getting the investments from the companies and entities.”
Officials like Magruder and Jefferson know there’s no easy fix to years of population decline and loss of industry, but they also believe the Friendly City is headed in a direction that will reverse many trends seen over the last few decades.
“It’s not going to be an overnight process,” Magruder said. “I just want to make sure people know that it’s not, it didn’t, it didn’t demise overnight. It’s not going to heal overnight, and it’s not going to be the same as it was 50 years ago.”