MORGANTOWN — The issues facing the city’s downtown are Morgantown’s problem, but they’re not Morgantown problems.
They’re the same problems confronting every city in every state in America.
They’re difficult.
But they’re not the whole story.
Pleasant Street
Jenny Selin is the mayor of Morgantown, but LJ Giuliani is the patriarch of Pleasant Street.
He talks fast. He has big ideas and, come October, he’ll have 25 years in business downtown bringing live music and cultural experiences to Morgantown’s masses at 123 Pleasant Street.
The ying to the Met Theatre’s more formal yang, 123 Pleasant Street is the kind of place where you can catch everything from death metal to Dolly Parton dance parties; from comedy shows to social causes.
And it’s growing.
“Our hope is that by the fall we want to expand 123’s footprint into the former [Mountain People’s] Co-op spaces and sort of continue that dynamic of being able to host artists to do workshops and sell their wares in those spaces. We’re already sort of doing that right now, but we want to be able to tie it in with 123 so as to make it a little more cohesive,” Giuliani said.
In May, LJ and his wife, Lisa, purchased 132 Pleasant St., the home of the original Black Bear Burritos for 17 years before its closure in late 2020.
“We’ve had some inquiries on the space but nothing that as of yet fits with the overall vision of what we have for Pleasant Street and what we’d like down here,” Giuliani said, explaining the former dining area gets occasional use as free pop-up space for local artists.
A small project is currently underway to clean up and eventually landscape the vacant lot at 120 Pleasant St.
A large project to clean up the entire downtown run of Pleasant Street, from University Avenue to Spruce Street, is just around the corner.
The West Virginia Division of Highways is currently reviewing bids on a streetscape project estimated in the $1.5 million range.
That project will include the construction and repair of sidewalks, tree pits and pedestrian-scale lighting and should be in progress by this summer, according to the city.
“Pleasant Street is a main artery coming in here. We feel a sense of responsibility in that we’re trying to do things in a way that reflect well on our downtown community,” Giuliani said. “When I think about what myself and the staff at 123 have done over the last 25 years, I like to think we’re doing some good down here.”
SoHi
A new cannabis dispensary?
No.
It’s the abbreviation of South High — a play on New York’s SoHo.
More importantly, it’s an idea that’s become a rallying point.
“This is a big deal what is happening,” Main Street Morgantown President Mark Downs said.
What’s happening, Downs explained, is an unprecedented collaboration of private entrepreneurs, the city of Morgantown, Monongalia County, WVU, Main Street Morgantown, the Morgantown Area Partnership and others.
The unofficial group is reenvisioning South High Street, the city’s Wharf District and how the two connect to one another as well as the riverfront amenities on both sides of the bridge, like the future home of Chestnut Brew Works and other developments on the Westover side of the Mon.
“It’s just really exciting to see those kinds of institutional silos break down and imagine what’s in the realm of the possible if we all work together,” Downs said. “Our South High Street area is more of a blank canvas than we’ve got anywhere else in the city, I think.”
Downs points to the investment in the new Hotel Morgan and the multi-million dollar effort underway to overhaul the Historic Post Office building as momentum.
He also includes the Warner Theatre, which he co-owns with Rich Brant.
The 18,500 square-foot theater first opened in 1931. Hollywood’s Warner Brothers studios put up $400,000 to build it as part of a nationwide chain.
A group from WVU is finishing up an economic impact analysis. Once that’s done, Downs said, the focus moves to financing the old building’s rebirth.
“It’ll be more of a convention space than a traditional theater because we want to be distinctly different than the Met. I mean that in a good way, in order to just provide more options for our community,” Downs said, putting the probability of project completion at 95%.
He later amended that prediction.
“As for the Warner, [you] can say it’s happening.”
