MORGANTOWN — A $6.9 million expansion of Mylan Park’s Hazel and J.W. Ruby Community Center is expected to begin next week.
Terri Howes, executive director of the Mylan Park Foundation, said the 48,000 square-foot addition will essentially double the size of the facility, which is the largest expo center between Charleston and Pittsburgh.
The addition was designed by Paradigm Architecture and will be built by Lytle Construction.
Howes put April 2022 as the target to open the expanded facility.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity, not only to bring visitors to our area, but it’s needed and it’s going to be so appreciated by our residents in north-central West Virginia,” she said.
The expansion itself will be able to accommodate five basketball or volleyball courts or two indoor soccer footprints.
Visit Mountaineer Country CVB Executive Director Susan Riddle said the facility will be a desired location for camps, leagues and tournaments locally, regionally and nationally.
It will also give the community center nearly 100,000 square feet under roof.
“This is a really exciting time. Mylan Park, and all the development that is there, is a shining example of what a community can do by multiple partners working together,” Riddle said.
Funding for the project is coming primarily from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust and the Mylan Charitable Foundation.
Also Wednesday, the commission agreed to put up $2 million in matching funds in support of the Morgantown Utility Board’s water extension project in the Morgantown Industrial Park.
MUB is applying for an EDA Public Works Grant to offset more than $7 million in needed upgrades for the park expansion, which would include the placement of Mountaintop Beverage.
It was previously explained this one manufacturing facility would consume as much as 500 gallons of water and sewer service per minute, around the clock.
The county’s money is essentially a placeholder as the actual matching funds will come from the new industrial park TIF district, if ultimately approved.
However, the earliest the TIF district could be approved is May. The matching funds need to be committed, available and unencumbered now to allow MUB to apply for the grant.
If the TIF is not ultimately approved, the industrial park expansion and Mountaintop location will not happen.
“What we’re doing is we will be the backstop for the $2 million, to guarantee that it’s provided, but it’s unlikely that we will need to actually spend those dollars,” Commission President Sean Sikora said. “They just need the commitment, so they can move forward.”
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