SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens said despite the cancellation of Little Creek Village shopping center project, the future of a second plaza at the FMC fly ash pond is still positive.
Tennessee-based Interstate Realty canceled its Little Creek Village plans citing economic concerns such as high rents and the struggling retail industry.
The shopping plaza would have been across the Southridge Shopping Center and would have been part of the city’s tax increment financing district, which is estimated to accumulate $155 million dollars in public investments. The West Virginia Division of Highways is set to also expand Jefferson Road as part of the district.
Yet Mullens said the second area could be the beneficiary of the scrapped plan.
“We are in the process of working with that developer to potentially relocate those tenants that were going to go at Little Creek into other parts of our community and potentially at the fly ash pond,” he said. “We still have some work to do, but there’s the possibility that we really didn’t lose anything.”
Mullens said the drilling work at the pond has been completed, and the city is waiting on the written report on the substances found.
“The verbal report we got back was that they didn’t find anything they didn’t expect, which is good news,” he said.
Mullens added the first sign of construction work should be this coming winter when crews begin clearing land.