The Justice administration’s economic development team has had a number of hits over the last few years: Nucor Steel in Mason County, Form Energy battery manufacturer in Weirton, Berkshire Hathaway’s renewable energy industrial site in Ravenswood, TIMET titanium metals in Jackson County, just to name a few.
However, in the world of state-endorsed economic development, there are also misses. The most recent miss is Pure Watercraft at the Beech Bottom industrial site in Brooke County.
The state’s political leaders announced in August 2022 that the Seattle-based company planned to locate a factory in West Virginia to build electric pontoon boats and electric outboard motors. These boats promised to be quieter with less maintenance than a gas powered motor and more environmentally friendly.
“We’re building the next generation of boats,” said Pure Watercraft president and CEO Andrew Rebele at the time. Rebele and state leaders predicted that up to 100 people could be employed at the plant by 2025. “I really look forward to seeing this place take life.”
The company started production, but just recently shut down and laid off its workforce of about two-dozen people. Mitch Carmichael, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, said the boats were in demand but the company ran out of money to operate.
“Their private sector money dried up,” Carmichael told me, “and they could not ramp up production to meet customer demand.”
West Virginia put up about $4.5 million for the failed project, but Carmichael maintains it was a good investment because of how the money was used. “They (Pure Watercraft) couldn’t just take the money and run with it. Most of it went to capital expenditures in the building.”
Carmichael said as a result, more than 100,000 square feet of the industrial complex is now refurbished and “fitted for the next generation of manufacturing. It’s a public building available for development right now.”
West Virginia has had more economic development announcements in the last several years than any time in recent memory. State government has been a partner in most of these projects, using taxpayer dollars as incentives. State officials try to mitigate the risk by spending on infrastructure and tying forgivable loans to benchmarks that must be met by the new company.
That has worked out well, for the most part. However, when the government is picking winners and losers, inevitably there will be misses. Pure Watercraft was one of them.
