Green Energy Eyed as Fuel for Economic Engine at Stone Center in Wheeling

The Stone Center in Wheeling has been an important hub sparking the city’s downtown business renaissance, as its anchor tenant – Williams Lea – has expanded its operation over the years to include hundreds of employees. An effort is underway to provide a green energy source to the building as an incentive for Williams Lea to continue its presence and even expand its operations in Wheeling.

WHEELING — A project to invest nearly a quarter million dollars into solar panels atop the Stone Center in downtown Wheeling is driven not only by the benefits of renewable energy, but also by an ongoing effort to propel economic development in the heart of the city.

Members of Wheeling City Council are expected to hear a second reading and to take a final vote Tuesday night on an ordinance to spend $240,255 with RED (Regional Economic Development Partnership) for this project.

RED owns Stone Center, the former Stone & Thomas flagship building that fronts both Main Street and the Plaza on Market. Since its redevelopment in 2005, the Stone Center has served as a hub for housing big economic development endeavors, and the anchor tenant has been the Williams Lea Group.

Because Williams Lea leases a number of floors at the Stone Center, local officials have been eying incentives to not only keep them at the site but also to lay the groundwork that could encourage them to further expand there.

“One of the things that they’ve expressed an interest in is green power,” said Craig O’Leary, program director at RED. “And so we have worked with Solar Holler to try to find the best way to satisfy their interests and to try to secure a long-term lease in downtown. Between us and the city, it’s very important.”

photo by: Photo by Eric Ayres

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the proposed project would involve installation of 281 solar panels on the roof of the Stone Center. The panels would be connected to the meter serving a leased space by Williams Lea.

The cost of the solar panel installation – like much of the investment into the Stone Center’s redevelopment – would be covered by money generated through the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. Herron explained that the Stone Center’s redevelopment was not only the first in the city but also the first in the state to utilize funding through a TIF District.

“The Stone Center was the original Tax Increment Financing project in the entire state of West Virginia,” Herron said. “The city has – in cooperation with RED – invested in that building throughout the past 20 years.”

A TIF is a tool authorized by the West Virginia State Legislature in 2004 to help municipalities finance redevelopment projects and to help promote economic activity. Millions of dollars have been generated through the city’s TIF Districts to help fund the Stone Center redevelopment and many other projects in town.

The city of Wheeling recently took action to consolidate its Downtown TIF District and Center Wheeling TIF District that had generated money when Ohio Valley Medical Center was in operation. Late last year, the city approved legislation authorizing the issuance of up to $20 million in TIF bonds.

“The recently approved TIF project bond sale calls for a $2 million investment in the (Stone Center) building to incentivize Williams Lea’s retention and expansion,” Herron said. “This project continues the long standing and successful partnership with RED to redevelop this economic development anchor in downtown Wheeling.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams Lea had between 600 and 700 employees working in downtown Wheeling every day.

“Williams Lea is a very important employer in downtown Wheeling,” O’Leary said, noting that the company’s current workforce is about 300-400 employees strong, but the goal of this incentive is to help bring them back to a pre-pandemic-level workforce of more than 600 employees. “We’re trying to get back to that.”

Herron said the solar panel project and some future improvements to the building are not only being pursued in an effort to have Williams Lea renew its leases in the Stone Center, but also to consider future expansion into available space there.

“That was included in the TIF project plan,” Herron said. “There is approximately $2 million worth of additional improvements to the building, and this represents about $240,000 of that.”

Williams Lea has expanded its operation at the Stone Center on a number of occasions over the years since opening its offices there in 2005, O’Leary explained.

“Because they’ve grown over time, they have multiple leases on multiple floors,” O’Leary said. “They currently occupy three floors in the Stone Center. The leases expire on different dates.”

The primary goal for RED and the city in this venture is to encourage Willaims Lea to make a long-term commitment in the Stone Center.

“Our goal is to get as many people as we can in that building, and Williams Lea has been our anchor tenant for a long time now,” O’Leary said. “As a development in downtown, we really want to keep Williams Lea.”

Three of the floors of the Stone Center are currently occupied by Williams Lea. RED leases floors six, seven and eight to the Woda-Cooper Companies, which in turn leases apartments known as the Stone Center Lofts. The fourth floor of the building is occupied by WVU Medicine-Wheeling’s Urgent Care center. One floor is currently vacant, and officials said they would love to see Williams Lea not only ramp up its downtown workforce, but also expand its operation to this vacant floor.

Once installed, the new solar panels would help Williams Lea save on the cost of electricity.

“Based on the root capacity, it’s probably going to handle about one floor,” O’Leary explained. “So we would tie that into the utility costs of a floor being leased by Williams Lea.”

A global leader in providing specialist business process outsourcing (BPO) services, Williams Lea re-engineers information flows to improve business performance for large firms around the world. In 2011, the Williams Lea Group acquired the design and production company Tag Worldwide and incorporated its name and marketing production business into the Williams Lea Tag operations.

It has been mentioned by city officials in recent years that additional parking being made available through the construction of the new Market Street Parking Garage at the corner of 11^th Street downtown is also viewed as an incentive for Williams Lea to make a long-term commitment to downtown Wheeling and possibly expand its operations further.

Wheeling City Council is expected to vote on the solar panel legislation during its next regular meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the City-County Building.

: The Stone Center in Wheeling has been an important hub sparking the city’s downtown business renaissance, as its anchor tenant – Williams Lea – has expanded its operation over the years to include hundreds of employees. An effort is underway to provide a green energy source to the building as an incentive for Williams Lea to continue its presence and even expand its operations in Wheeling.

: The Stone Center in Wheeling has been an important hub sparking the city’s downtown business renaissance, as its anchor tenant – Williams Lea – has expanded its operation over the years to include hundreds of employees. An effort is underway to provide a green energy source to the building as an incentive for Williams Lea to continue its presence and even expand its operations in Wheeling.