Photo by Alex Meyer The buildings at 1107 and 1109 Main St. in Wheeling, foreground, may see new life after the city heard new proposals to repair structural damage and renovate for commercial and residential use at a Wheeling Development Committee meeting Monday.

WHEELING — Two vacant city-owned buildings on Main Street in Downtown Wheeling may see new life after city officials heard proposals for the structures Monday.

Members of the newly formed organization Main Street Ventures presented their plans for repairing and renovating 1107 and 1109 Main St. at a Wheeling Development Committee meeting. The plans involve a public-private partnership with the city that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Neither the city nor the developer know yet how much each might spend to renovate the buildings.

“We’re looking at ways to save them, recognizing that they are old and challenged buildings with a lot of issues,” Mayor Glenn Elliott, chairman of the committee, said.

Mark Kepple, a lawyer at Bailey and Wyant in Wheeling, said Main Street Ventures plans to have a restaurant on the first floor of 1107 Main St., with a deck that extends into the Heritage Port Park & Sculpture Garden on the building’s north side.

Gabe Hays, a member of the organization and a director at WallacePancher Group, spoke about the 1109 Main St. building. He said a potential tenant is interested in opening a coffee shop in the building’s first floor. The upper floors of both buildings would be used for apartments.

The plan for the buildings involves major facade restoration work, Hays said, and the organization plans to use the city’s Facade Improvement Program. The program gives grants for such projects as downtown commercial buildings.

The buildings also require a number of costly repairs, such as roof repairs, waterproofing the foundations, building a fire escape system and mold and asbestos abatement. Elliott estimated those repairs could cost about $270,000.

“We need to be able to think about safety and people are going to feel comfortable living and working in these structures,” Hays said. “That is one of the critical features.”

City officials had considered tearing down one or both of the structures in the past, but Elliott and Vice Mayor Chad Thalman agreed that it would be more costly for the city to do so. Demolishing 1107 Main St. also would present structural problems for 1109 Main St., Hays said.

“I don’t think tearing down 1107 (Main St.) gives you much bang for your buck for a slightly larger park,” Elliott said. “Bringing these buildings back to life and making them contributing structures to what’s going on downtown is in my interest.”

City Councilwoman Wendy Scatterday, vice chairwoman of the committee, requested that the Main Street Ventures members provide more specific information regarding their plans for the buildings, such as a timeline, the total cost of the project and the total investment from the organization.

“We need to be able to reflect to the citizens what your investment is and why it is that we’re supporting whatever level of investment that the city would support,” Scatterday said.

The committee voted to recommend that Wheeling City Council transfer the properties to the Ohio Valley Area Development Corp., the next step required to move forward with the plans if Main Street Ventures provides more information. The city had acquired the properties in early 2016 for more than $200,000 in revenue from a $9.67 million tax increment financing bond sale.