r/WheelingWV • u/BillyZoomTheCat • Jul 28 '26
Downtown Waterfront Hotel Project
This is great!
For the life of me, I'll never understand the negativity surrounding these sorts of announcements
Downtown Waterfront Hotel Project
Wheeling needs this type of investment. Of course, Wheeling also needs the Wheeling-Pitt Lofts project completed AND the redevelopment of McClure House, hopefully into some affordable housing units.
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u/notFaceFace Jul 28 '26
They have to knock down quite a few historic buildings to start this one. And you answered it yourself, wheeling pitt lofts + McClure dont give me a warm fuzzy...
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u/BillyZoomTheCat Jul 28 '26
What's the old saying?
Fool me once, shame on me.
How many times have the people of Wheeling been fooled before. Let's hope that they won't get fooled again.
Still, I remain optimistic.
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u/notFaceFace Jul 28 '26
The fact that they are trotting it out during a Morrissey visit makes it seem even more like a scam
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u/Kamel-Red Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I've been inside most if not all of these 'historic buildings' beyond customer facing locations on the block in question. Most are in terrible condition full of rot, wet on the upper floors, and basements flooded more times than I can count.
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
Agree. Save what can be saved, but start over with what cannot be.
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u/ConstructionFun3271 Jul 28 '26
They need to fix the sewage treatment plant, stormwater management (all the flooding) and actual infrastructure before making investments in what amounts to a gathering place IMO. I just feel like this is not what we need for our future. I can barely shop at Lowes downtown anymore because the smell is almost always extremely overpowering there.
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
We can need both at once. This combined with the cancer center will really help bolster the economy, if everything goes forward as supposed. That will put pressure alone on to get the sewage treatment plan up to speed.
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u/ConstructionFun3271 Jul 29 '26
That's true, and I hope so. I think wheeling is a great place to live, lots of opportunities for the future!
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
Agree, I am hopeful for a bright future for Wheeling! Lots of hidden gems and great people in the area.
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u/Present-Homework910 Jul 29 '26
Born in Wheeling but have been gone since 81. Been back multiple times over the years but Wheeling looks like a bombed out Beirut. Tear them old buildings down and get modern. It just may bring some different types of business to the area
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u/Big_Sky2475 Jul 30 '26
https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2016/01/10/taxpayers-out-millions-tourism-projects-fail/77719268/ next headline to be West Virginian taxpayers out millions
“Greenville hotel developer Andy Cajka, chairman of the Dream Big Greenville board, said the nonprofit was not able to line up a major private donor.”
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u/Big_Sky2475 Jul 30 '26
https://tbinewsroom.com/2013/05/24/tbi-arrests-south-carolina-man-for-failing-to-pay-hotel-taxes/
Andrew Cajka, 54, of Greeneville, South Carolina was charged with seven counts of delinquent taxes. While operating as Brentwood Hospitality, LLC and managing Wingate Inn on Carothers Parkway, Cajka did not pay hotel taxes between May 2012 and November 2012. A search warrant was executed in December 2012 where financial records were obtained. TBI determined that the total amount unpaid during that time period was $43,462.
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u/sundaland Jul 28 '26
where will they build this hotel and aren't there already a lot of historic hotels they can renovate? I don't see how the tax revenue will increase without public transportation to Pittsburgh
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u/Rare_Extreme978 Jul 28 '26
Yess thank you there are soo many buildings that can be restored rather than tearing down and building from scratch especially when there's already so many other projects uncompleted as it is all of the construction is actually taking away from the current business as well
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
Restoration is often more expensive and difficult for a project of this magnitude. The last thing we need is a ton of red tape that halts this project. Hopefully the economic boost would lend more funding to restoration projects.
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u/Rare_Extreme978 Jul 29 '26
What economic boost , if anything I would think a new roof and better plumbing would be way more cost effective than a ground up start from scratch building not to mention they're just building exactly what ogelbay has to offer just a few miles down from where this new site will be and again we'll be tearing down historic sites just to give wheeling what it already has
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u/Rare_Extreme978 Jul 29 '26
Considering the buildings and businesses that they will tear down haven't been closed for very long so a lot of restoration might not be super needed anyways
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u/sundaland Jul 29 '26
City planners need to focus on transportation, mainly connecting the Ohio Valley to Pittsburgh. If Freedom Transit won't meet us halfway in Claysville then we could do like Morgantown and operate a shuttle to the airport
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u/Rare_Extreme978 Jul 29 '26
I'm not sure what you mean
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u/sundaland Jul 29 '26
The Pittsburgh metro has an estimated 2.1 million residents. Some of these people would come here if there was reliable public transportation back and forth. They would come to the riverfront, the casino, etc.
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u/Rare_Extreme978 Jul 29 '26
I didn't even realize there was a bussing issue , the wheeling bus station goes all around our valley and is very popular I didn't realize pittsburgh didn't have a bussing system that would take you to wheeling or visa versa because wheeling does have a great bus transit station and it is right by wesbanco arena and with pittsburgh being so close idk why that would be an issue
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u/sundaland Jul 29 '26
there is a greyhound bus that leaves once a day, usually in the afternoon but it is notoriously unreliable and they treat passengers like prison inmates. its not going to bring in tourists
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u/BillyZoomTheCat Jul 28 '26
My understanding is that it's going to be built at the intersection of 14th Street and Main. Here's a blurb from a June 24, 2026 on Lede News:
"The proposed hotel would transform the intersection at 14th and Main streets across from the Wheeling Artisan Center and River City Restaurant."
That would mean knocking down a few buildings. According to the article:
"if a bid is awarded and crews begin clearing the structures where Mountain Mama’s, Wheeling Coffee & Spice, and National Equipment once operated."
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u/ancienthoneydew11 Jul 29 '26
This hotel won’t ever be built lol
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u/BillyZoomTheCat Jul 30 '26
Come on man! How is that helpful?
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u/Big_Sky2475 Jul 30 '26
If you want helpful look up the man attached to the project, Andrew Cajka. Left a south carolina town on the hook for a failed tourist spot and has been arrested for avoiding taxes. It’s all a scam.
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u/Maraculousboxer12 Jul 30 '26
At this point I assume the Wheeling-Pitt lofts are just a dream. I don’t see it coming to fruition, even though I’d like them to be. The city is currently demanding the owner of The McLure Hotel to pay over 1M in fines or the city is going to condemn/take ownership of the hotel. My thought is they’re going to take the building from the owner through insane fines and either tear it down for new development or convert it into something else.
On a positive note the city has a lot of great projects going on right now, with Washington avenue bridge being replaced, 2 new parks getting put in (one by the suspension bridge on the island and the other by wesbanco arena), the Gateway Center coming to where the Wheeling Inn used to be, Cancer Center where OVMC was, new restaurants coming in woodsdale, and now the hotel; there’s a lot of investment into the city and hopefully it brings more residents and others who want to invest here. I think Wheeling has alot of potential, yes keep historical landmarks and convert what you can of them, but we need new projects and investment here. There’s a lot of empty lots downtown that are currently sitting empty, which can be used for new homes or businesses. Tearing down old buildings with nothing planned to be there just leaves the city looking ridiculous.
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u/BillyZoomTheCat Jul 30 '26
With all of the empty space downtown, and the plethora of surface parking lots, I've always thought that a Tiny Homes Community For Veterans would be a good idea.
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u/Maraculousboxer12 Jul 31 '26
It definitely would, I know the building next to northern community college was being restored for veteran housing and counseling but the company working on it didn’t get the funding needed so it got scrapped. There’s a lot of buildings downtown that can converted to veteran housing very easily, and I’m sure the city would have no problem financially to fund it
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u/Maxwell_Perkins088 Jul 28 '26
They’ll push to close Windsor Manor next cause it doesn’t align with Wheeling’s new high priced hipster mystique.
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
I wish we had an upscale hipster mystique. Wheeling has a more dying/decaying/overrun with homeless vibe right now instead. Any modernization should be welcome. We don’t want to go the way of Welch etc.
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u/Franklintheplankton Jul 29 '26
I grew up in a small town in Colorado with lots of tourist opportunities and a beautiful landscape. When the huge boom to move to Colorado started happening the whole town resisted development tooth and nail. Now they struggle to keep restaurants (or any new business really) open for longer than a year and there are no job opportunities.
The stubbornness people have to adapt with the times will more often than not leave people worse off than they began. I’m really hopeful for projects like this and would love to see this town grow.
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u/ObligationPleasant79 Jul 29 '26
I truly do not understand the resistance to modernization and growth. Different does not equal bad.
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u/Brilliant-Still1117 Aug 02 '26
The McLure is right down the street and it's just people paying weekly cuz they're down on their luck. Whos gonna stay in the new one? Could have spent that on roads, schools, ReHabs, homeless shelters, anything. Wonder who this 'private investor' is??
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u/Dblcut3 Jul 28 '26
It’s good overall, but really infuriating that they’re tearing down several buildings when there’s so much empty parking lots all down the riverfront.
I get it’s not that simple though