CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission approved the lone $75,000 bid on an auction for the Upper Kanawha Valley Enterprise Community building at its meeting Thursday night.
The building was purchased by the private Roane County oil and gas company Elk Terminals to use for office space.
“The UKVEC Building is a drain on the county commission,” Commissioner Dave Hardy said. “The federal money dried up five years ago that we use to operate it.”
He said that maintenance costs for the building had begun to exceed revenue that was being brought into it. He and the commission had hoped to make more than the $75,000, but under the circumstances they took what was offered.
“We had hoped to get more for the building, but the building has been trending downward for about two years,” he explained. “All the maintenance has been deferred, and many tenants that used to be there related to the coal industry have left the building. When the coal industry falls, the upper Kanawha Valley really starts to hurt.”
Hardy said there wasn’t much thought to extend the auction in the hopes of earning more for the building, saying that it “would have been a mistake” and the auction was “well-publicized.”
Elk Terminals has promised 11 jobs in association with the purchase, but Hardy said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more.
Real estate agent Jay Goldman had the job of auctioning the building, for which the original minimum bid was $165,000.
The property used to house Cheylan Elementary.