Bluefield eyes long list of municipal projects
bluefield — Building a border monument where West Virginia and Virginia meet, bringing an outdoor stage and more green space to downtown Bluefield, and making travel easier and safer are among the many projects lined up for the city of Bluefield.
The Bluefield Board of Directors recently outlined projects that are underway and others that are being considered. One project, the demolition of the vacant Ferri Building on Bland Street has been approved by the board, said City Manager Cecil Marson. This project is being funded by a $296,000 federal Community Development Block grant with an $85,000 city match. Demolishing this structure will create more parking near the new city center park and turn the adjacent alley into a thoroughfare for pedestrians and cyclists.
The new downtown park will be built in a space created when the downtown's 400 block buildings were demolished. A green space, an outdoor stage and a venue for food trucks and festivals are part of the plan.
Projects on the city's lists are not confined to the downtown. In February 2024, the city was awarded a $25,547,532 federal grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. That project involves the creation of four roundabouts in the city, creating pedestrian and bicycle accommodations through a strategic mountain gap, and making safety improvements which include implementing traffic-calming strategies and installing sidewalks, crosswalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons and street lighting on selected corridors.
More projects include improvements in Lotito Park featuring a splash pad, repaving parking lots and other enhancements. Housing in the Tree Street and Cypress Street areas along with Bluefield Arts Revitalization Corps (BARC) efforts to revitalize the historic Traveler's Hotel and Hotel Thelma are among other projects as well.
Marson said there is a reason for so much ongoing activity.
'I think you have a board and employees here at the city that are steadfast on making our area what we want it to be and it's going to take a lot of hard work and that's what we're committed to,' Marson said about all the projects underway and being studied. 'I know in some cases we could probably do better, but we are doing everything humanly possible to get us to where we need to go; and so we're kind of in the middle of a big time here.'
The city is looking at how to implement and fund the long list of projects.
'We're wracking our brains on what is the best path forward and what we can do,' Marson said.
Downtown businesses and BARC have done a good job with projects such as renovating and reopening the Granada Theater, he said. The city center project for the 400 block is a foundational part of finding ways to use the downtown's other buildings. The park would help bring more visitors to the downtown and encourage more people to live there.
'There's potentially an argument out there that they don't need any more parks. Well, what I would say is we have to have a reason. Folks want business, right? and a business person wants to know what has the investment been before I spend my money on an infrastructure bringing a business in here,' Marson said. 'It's a chicken or egg discussion, but it's a team game, right? We're putting in this investment to clean up the storefronts, clean up the center of the city with all the great businesses we've got operating down there.'
Investing in the downtown's buildings would help attract developers and bring in more businesses, he said. Then the city can see how it can help these entrepreneurs open their doors.
'How do we help you get this building up and get your business up and rocking?,' Marson said.
Creating a parking lot at the Ferri Building site would add to making the downtown more attractive for new businesses.
'We're trying to set the table as advantageous as we can to attract that business,' he said. 'All of your customers are going to park right here and they're going to park 50 feet right into your storefront.'
Revamping other vacant downtown buildings will be challenging.
'They have gotten in such disrepair, it's economically difficult to revamp those buildings without a lot of outside grant funding,' Marson said. 'There are very few business owners can come and spend $2 million or $3 million on a building. We want a storefront, a bakery, we want a women's clothing shop, a men's shop, a butcher shop. Well, all those businesses, it takes a while to get your return on investment. The buildings we have need to be upgraded and fixed to entice that kind of business. Basically give them shovel ready, store ready places. That's what we're working on right now. We're going to work with a developer and work with our team here to get those buildings upgraded and clean; but we have again we have infrastructure in the town that was built for 30,000 people. We're currently sitting right around 10,000.'
The city's long-term goal is to boost its population back up to 30,000 residents.
'It's going to take time, but with this massive infrastructure vacant for 20, 30 years, unfortunately it got into some tough shape and we cannot fix them all,' Marson said. 'We don't have the money to fix them all, so we have to make some hard decisions for the greater good, for the long term.'
All the projects Bluefield is undertaking will become part of its Comprehensive Plan, Marson said. The city has gotten public feedback for town hall meetings, and many projects came from those discussions, Marson said. In the near future there will be another town hall meeting to collect more feedback, then the Bluefield Planning Commission will vote on the overall Comprehensive Plan and make recommendations to the Board of Directors which will then vote on whether to ratify it.
'Hopefully we get to a world where the downtown's humming and developers are coming in and they're building all over the place because it's a destination of choice and folks are coming here,' Marson said. 'Hopefully for our Christmas in the future, we'll have the downtown decorated and we'll have a nice park feeding off into our businesses and we've got folks lined up all over the place, traffic jams of folks coming into the city to enjoy Christmas and shop and use all our restaurants and all our businesses, the Granada and Raleigh Street Cinemas.'
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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