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Wheeling To Seek $4M in Tax Credits for Garage

WHEELING — Federal tax credits worth up to $4 million would help city officials build a 550-space parking garage in the 1100 block, just across Market Street from the planned 90-plus-unit Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel apartment tower.

“The parking garage will be necessary for the Wheeling-Pitt project to happen,” Mayor Glenn Elliott said after the Tuesday city council meeting.

Tuesday, contractors working for Coon Restoration and Sealants kept busy sending paper down the trash chute, which extends all the way from the roof of the 13-story structure, which is the tallest in Wheeling.

“The amount of material they have to get out of there is hard to comprehend,” Elliott said. “They are still in the early stages, but we feel like it’s a great opportunity.”

City officials hope to build the garage on property that is now a surface parking lot, positioned across Market Street from the Wheeling-Pitt building and to the south of The Health Plan headquarters. This is the site once home to the L.S. Good’s department store, which closed in the 1980s.

Officials estimate the price tag for the new parking structure at $10 million. In addition to the tax credits, city leaders envision using tax increment financing revenue from the work at the Wheeling-Pitt building to help pay for the new garage. Other funding could possibly come from natural gas produced on land the city recently leased for fracking on 336 acres, much of which consists of former landfill property.

During Tuesday’s meeting, city council heard the first reading of an ordinance to hire a consultant to help Wheeling qualify for the federal New Markets Tax Credit. According to the ordinance, the consultant will be paid up to $15,000 for his or her initial services, along with a yet-to-be-determined “closing fee.”

“It is my understanding that New Markets Tax Credits are extremely complex,” Elliott said.

The U.S. Department of Treasury administers the program. According to the website, the program endeavors to assist “low-income communities” overcome a “cycle of disinvestment.”

“It could be worth about $4 million toward the project,” City Manager Robert Herron said. “It is in the city’s best interest, by far, to pursue New Markets Tax Credits.”

In the meantime, work continues to remove the paper and other items left inside the Wheeling-Pitt building when the company known as RG Steel went bankrupt in 2012. Eventually, Coon officials hope to build at least 90 market-rate apartments inside the massive structure, providing tenants some of the same vistas once seen by executives of Wheeling-Pitt. and the Schmulbach Brewing Co. There also may be some retail space on the first floor of the structure, which dates to 1905.

Jim McCue, project manager for Louisville, Ohio-based Coon, said there would be both one and two-bedroom apartments. Although he could not commit to a time frame, he said the work would take at least a year from the time it actually begins.

The next regular Wheeling City Council meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. April 17 on the first floor of the City-County Building, 1500 Chapline St. The city’s development committee will convene at noon Thursday in the same location.

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