MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Council will take up a collaboration agreement on Wednesday aimed at redeveloping about 9.5 contiguous acres of property in the Woodburn area of the city.
The agreement, which includes the Monongalia County Development Authority, WVU and the county commission, is focused around property acquired from the Giuliani family, including James and Karen Giuliani and various business interests, and Alex and Laura Giuliani.
Russ Rogerson, president and CEO of the Morgantown Area Partnership said that property was purchased for $11.8 million. He said the planning and redevelopment process will likely take two to three years.
“We don’t know exactly what the plan is because we’ll be going through that probably over the next year,” Rogerson said. “We’ll most likely do a PUD (planned unit development) with the city and that will be its own process”
Morgantown Communications Manager Andrew Stacy said the property represented an opportunity, noting “the city, county and WVU did not want to see the land auctioned off.”
Rogerson echoed those sentiments, calling it a “once in long time opportunity.”
“It was an opportunity to get over nine acres of land, contiguous, which we believe is a large enough density to be able to do multiple things and really take a good hard look at the overall redevelopment of that area, which … is one of the cornerstones and entry points to the community,” he said.
The agenda item on council’s agenda notes the property falls within the city’s Wiley, Spruce, Brockway TIF District. It also notes the size of the redevelopment could potentially expand to 11-14 total acres.
Morgantown City Council is meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 18 as a result of its Nov. 3 regular meeting being pushed back 24 hours due to Election Day.
