Tag: Barboursville
Barboursville Mayor looks to future business growth
Barboursville Mayor looks to future business growth and economic prospects amid holiday shopping and pending new year
POSTED BY KATHERINESKELDON WCHS 104.5 FM ON DECEMBER 18, 2023
BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — The Mayor of Barboursville is looking forward to a busy holiday shopping season and a new year of further growth in the city as several new businesses and economic developments get underway.
Mayor Chris Tatum said on The Dave Allen Show Monday the city’s revenue has seen a record-breaking year following the new developments. He said a major one still in the works, though, is the announcement of Dave & Buster’s to come to the Huntington Mall.
Tatum said although the popular arcade and entertainment establishment hasn’t made its way to the area yet, he feels its pending arrival alone will attract more holiday shoppers to the mall this year as the excitement builds for the first Dave & Buster’s to come to the state.
However, he said Dave & Buster’s only scratches the surface of all of the developing prospects coming to Barboursville and the entire state for the year ahead.
“There’s so many good things going on here, in Charleston, in the valley and what not,” Tatum said. “It’s such an exciting time and if people aren’t excited then they aren’t looking for anything to be excited about.”
He said as the city has already been voted one of the top retail and shopping destinations in the state by many national publications, this is only more motivation for them to work toward continued growth.
Tatum said every year he and other city representatives attend the International Association of Shopping Centers conference for a chance to network and develop relationships with potential business prospects to come to Barboursville, as he said the event brings in any entity you can imagine would be in a mall or retail center, all looking for more places to establish their businesses within.
He said it’s important to reach out to these retail and business representatives attending the conference in hopes of influencing them to establish roots in the area, even it’s one which seems like too big of a stretch for West Virginia to accommodate, because, he said taking the chance to get them here could always pay off.
“We do talk to folks like that, we have talked to them, we’ve talked to Topgolf, I mean I know that’s kind of high in the sky but I thought Dave and Busters six years ago was high in the sky,” he said.
Tatum said Barboursville has the largest shopping complex in the state, and the more and more businesses that establish in the area, the more others will follow.
“It makes people start looking at it, you point out the good, you point out kind of the numbers of where people are coming from to do their shopping, they start taking notice, and that’s how its all happened with Dave and Busters,” said Tatum.
Another new prospect which has come to the Huntington Mall, the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers, Tatum said will not only bring in economic development opportunities but educational opportunities to the area, as well.
“We’re happy to have that in our city, too, lots of learning opportunities, and lots of expanded learning opportunities for students here in Cabell County,” he said.
He said in addition, every county in the region will soon be benefitting from the impact of Nucor Steele currently being developed in Apple Grove in Mason County. The $3.1 billion steel mill is expected to bring in 800 new manufacturing jobs to the area.
Tatum said you can look at the growth going on throughout the entire state, and he said he is happy Barboursville can be a part of that.
“Doom and gloom I guess has been everyone’s mantra for a while now, or it seems that way, it always seems like the negative is pointed out, but man, we have so many positive things going on here and in the state, as well,” said Tatum.
He said the city expects to welcome Dave and Busters to the area for an official grand opening sometime in the spring or summer of 2024.
Cabell County Schools kick off construction of new career center at Huntington Mall
Cabell County Schools kicks off construction of new career tech center
- Oct 17, 2023
BARBOURSVILLE — Charles R. Neighborgall IV said standing in the former Sears building and future career technology center at the Huntington Mall on Tuesday was a “full circle moment” as both his father and grandfather helped construct the former Sears and Cabell County Career Technology Center before him.
Cabell County Schools celebrated a “Kickoff to Construction” for the new Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers on Tuesday with district partners, community members and many current Cabell County Career Technology Center students.
Neighborgall, president of Neighborgall Construction, which was awarded the $48,215,000 contract for the construction of the new Woody Williams Center, said it made him emotional thinking about the past and future of the space.
“My grandfather back in the ‘50s built the original Sears, it was where the St. Mary’s School of Nursing is now. … Then in the early ‘80s, late ‘70s, (my father) built the Sears building here at the mall and the career center where it’s currently housed. And here in two years we’ll finish this,” Neighborgall said. “It’s a little emotional for me, but it’s fantastic. And their mission and purpose here is terrific because that’s our future workforce that’s going to be learning right here, so that’s a neat aspect of this project for us.”
In lieu of shoveling dirt as Cabell County Schools representatives have done at previous groundbreaking ceremonies, staff and some students hammered nails and welded some metal for the Kickoff to Construction event.
The facility, which is expected to take about two years to complete, will have approximately 240,000 square feet of space for classrooms and teaching spaces to house current Cabell County Career Technology Center programs and allow the possibility of adding some new programs.
Brent Casey, Woody Williams’ grandson, said it was an honor to see Williams recognized with the naming of the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Career.
“I think Woody would be, would absolutely say, of all of the recognitions and honors, including receiving the Medal of Honor from President Truman in 1945, none of those were more important than what we are doing here today, than what will happen in this building in the future and for future generations,” Casey said.
Melissa Ash, principal of the current Cabell County Career Technology Center, said ahead of the hammering and welding that the new center will be an educational beacon.
“This signifies a turning point in our commitment to education, professional development and the future of our community here,” “As we hammer these first nails later in the ceremony and torch this metal, we symbolically lay the groundwork for the Williams Center to be a beacon of progress, a fortress of innovation and a hub for learning.”
Ash said the district’s responsibility with the new facility includes not only meeting students’ current needs in career and technical education, but that it evolves as demands of the workforce change.
Superintendent Ryan Saxe also introduced representatives from Marshall Health Network, Moses AutoMall and Moses Auto Group, and Putnam County Bank as initial partners and sponsors of lab and classroom spaces in the new Woody Williams Center.
“These business partners will play a pivotal role in shaping the educational and professional paths of our students and the spaces in which they learn because of their generous sponsorships,” Saxe said.
Sarah Ingram is a reporter for The Herald-Dispatch, covering public K-12 education. Follow her on Twitter @SIngramHD.