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NEWS
Former Ames building sold
Developers Scott Hutchison, left, and Bob Childers, right, partnered to win the Ames building property for a $510,000 bid. It was sold at auction Tuesday at the Cabell County Courthouse.
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HUNTINGTON -- A pair of developers on Tuesday purchased the former Ames building on W.Va. 152, setting the stage for a major employer to move into Huntington and a new location for Marshall Community and Technical College.
The Ames building, which has stood vacant for about eight years, was purchased in a foreclosure auction Tuesday by developers Bob Childers and Scott Hutchison.
They are teaming up to do the financing on a project that will result in DirecTV moving from the former Arch Coal building, located on a nearby hill, into the Ames building.
That paves the way for MCTC potentially moving into the vacated DirecTV property. MCTC is now located on the Marshall University campus.
Childers and Hutchison bid $510,000 for the Ames building and were the first and only bidders. The minimum bid was $500,000.
"This is just a culmination of so much incredible work by so many people," said Childers, who owns Childers Properties and Structures Resources Inc. and has been involved in several local development projects, the most recent being East Hills Professional Center.
He's renaming the Ames property West Hills.
Childers credited Huntington Area Development Council and the state of West Virginia for working with DirecTV and providing them with incentives to make the project a reality.
"Scott jumped in to pinch hit at the last minute," Childers said.
Childers said he's negotiating an agreement with DirecTV to do its development work on the Ames property. Its call center, which has about 700 employees, moved into the former Arch Coal building last year, after PRC filed for bankruptcy and sold its Huntington operation to DirecTV.
But the one-floor layout of the Ames building is better suited to DirecTV's traditional call center floor plan, Childers said. With features like a fitness center and Internet cafe, it's a solid investment in the Huntington community on DirecTV's part, Childers said.
"We're going to have a strong, long-term employee center out there," he said.
That property is inside city limits, bringing some user and municipal fees to the city of Huntington, he said.
The former Arch Coal building is just outside the city limits.
As for MCTC, that property would provide a safe campus-like setting close to Interstate 64, Childers said. MCTC is required by a 2008 state law to separate from Marshall University, which means finding a new site independent of the Marshall campus, as well as coming up with a new name.
Independence from four-year colleges is intended to provide the state's community and technical colleges the flexibility they need to focus on workforce development.
MCTC has not chosen a new name but may locate in the Arch Coal building and at satellite campuses around Huntington.
"Our plan is to negotiate on the Arch Coal building, as we have been for three or four months now," said Bob Bailey, a member of the MCTC board. "It's close to Huntington and the interstate and has a lot of room. It won't take that much remodeling to get our students in when the time comes. It has a lot of parking. It's a very fine building."
MCTC President Keith Cotroneo could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Last week, he declined comment on the potential deal, but said the Arch Coal Building is one of the college's preferred sites. Other locations are still being evaluated as well, he said at the time.
According to Childers, "Everything should be a go now." He foresees $25 million in development going on between the two sites, he said. And he hopes DirecTV can move into its new Huntington home by October 2010.
Kimco Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust that specializes in shopping centers, bought the 19-acre Ames property from Ashland Oil in 1982.
Kimco then deeded the property to the city so the corporation could use the city's municipal bonding authority to sell bonds and give it the financing package it needed to build the building.
In doing so, the city gave up all of its rights to the property, which left Kimco with controlling rights to the parking lot and a group of bondholders with controlling rights to the building. As a result, interested developers had to negotiate with two separate entities.
Childers already had a purchase agreement with Kimco for the parking lot. The only missing puzzle piece was the Ames building itself.
It had been vacant since Ames closed in 2001, drawing complaints from neighbors that the property was a public nuisance, attracting truckers, homeless people and weekend parties.
The new project "means a lot for Huntington," Childers said.
