CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The BridgeValley Community and Technical College Board of Governors voted Friday to move its operations from the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston to the old Staats Hospital building.
The board’s decision comes seven months after the board settled a nearly $1.7 million rent dispute with the technology park and signed a lease through September 2020.
Charleston Deputy Mayor Rod Blackstone said the board has been looking for new locations for a campus, and took interest in the building on Washington Street West.
“This will mean a whole lot of students coming to that section of Charleston, which is a dynamic area of the city and has enormous potential growth,” he said. “It’s a place where people have been investing, especially the Bullock family, and several other small businesses.
Tighe Bullock, president of Crawford Holdings LLC, purchased the Staats Hospital building in 2015.
“For the folks on the West Side who may not envision themselves going to a four-year institution, vocational and technical education becomes a neighbor,” he said. “Becomes more a realistic possibility in probability in their lives.”
The institution and Crawford Holdings will arrange a deal regarding finances, and city officials are helping officials identify service needs such as parking places and pedestrian safety.
State officials would have to approve the move. Blackstone said the move would happen at the conclusion of the lease with the technology park.