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Wheeling Public Safety Site Land Worth $400,000

Demolition, Environmental Cleanup Would Cost Taxpayers

File Photo This photo show is a 19th Street property owned by Frank Calabrese.

Read the 19th and Jacob Street property appraisal by clicking here

WHEELING — If the property city officials plan to purchase at 19th and Jacob streets for a proposed public safety building didn’t house dilapidated structures and the ground was free of contaminants, it would be worth $400,000, according to an appraisal of the site.

However, the site as it sits now houses several large windowless buildings that, if purchased by the city, will be abated and demolished using taxpayer funds.

Also, environmental studies at the site — the most recent being August of this year — found numerous “recognized environmental conditions,” or the likely presence of hazardous materials.

Philip Jackson, a certified real estate appraiser in Wheeling with the firm Jackson & Jackson, inspected the site at 19th and Jacob streets in East Wheeling on Sept. 22 and placed the $400,000 market value on the land “assuming the property is environmentally clean.”

The appraisal dated Oct. 3 was made public late last week after The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register earlier this month made an open records request for it, along with an environmental study on the 2.812-acre site. Wheeling taxpayers paid $1,500 for the appraisal.

“Based on an inspection of the property and the investigation and analysis undertaken, I have formed the opinion that as of Sept. 22, 2019 … the land only of the property had a market value, assuming the property is environmentally clean … of $400,000,” Jackson wrote.

City Council voted Tuesday on an option to purchase the property from Frank Calabrese and his Americo Inc. company for $150,000, while also setting aside another $195,000 for potential environmental remediation.

The city is pursuing a federal brownfields grant for site cleanup, and would give the $195,000 to Calabrese if it’s able to secure the government funds.

City Manager Robert Herron on Saturday said the city’s goal for the 19th and Jacob streets property is a “cleared site which would be valued at $400,000.”

“As you know the maximum purchase price is less than that number. Demolition is included in the project budget,” Herron said of the proposed $14.5 million project. “… This site at the negotiated purchase price and even with affordable environmental remediation, asbestos abatement and demolition still presents the most building flexibility and the least expensive project by at least $2.5 (million to) $3 million. That number in developing a project can’t be ignored.”

Calabrese’s Americo Inc. purchased the property out of bankruptcy for $40,000 in February 1997, according to the appraisal. Additional parcels around the main property were purchased for $18,862 in 1998 and 2001 from Bert LLC and the West Virginia Division of Highways and state Rail Authority.

“In the past, Americo has used the (property) for storage of used building materials, metal and other items,” Jackson wrote in the appraisal. “Excess space had been offered for rent, but I have no information on any lease agreements or the success or lack of success of the property as a rental. No noticeable improvements have been made to the buildings during Americo’s ownership, and apparently all the utilities were turned off or disconnected years ago.”

The appraisal compared recent land sales from four other industrial properties in Wheeling to arrive at the figure, Jackson wrote.

Jackson wrote in his report that the estimated $400,000 market value on the property is “as if vacant.” However, there remain several blighted buildings on the site from the former Hazel-Atlas glass factory that were built in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The report notes that Americo Inc. has razed some of the buildings in recent years.

“The remaining structures are deteriorated and considered to be in uninhabitable condition,” Jackson wrote in the appraisal.

Before building a public safety complex to house its police and fire departments, the city would have to demolish those buildings and likely would have to perform environmental cleanup of the site, the cost of which is unknown.

Wheeling officials last week also, at the request of this newspaper, released several environmental studies performed over the years.

In the most recent study by Environmental Solutions, done in August, 11 recognized environmental concerns were identified due to the property’s use over the last 150 years, which include time as a petroleum refinery, a chemical manufacturing facility, a machine shop, a gas works and electric light plant, and a glass manufacturer.

The property also has a rail line running through it, and once sat adjacent to a dry cleaner. There are hydraulic elevators on the property and it has stored electrical transformers, many of which were unlabeled at the time of inspection.

There is no estimate on how much the environmental cleanup would cost. Herron said the site’s phase II environmental assessment, which will determine what needs done to remediate the property, is being paid through a federal grant.

The city’s brownfields application through the EPA “is geared toward clean up of this site as well as others in the city and if awarded, will be very beneficial to brownfield cleanup in the city. If that doesn’t materialize, City Council would have the option to purchase the property at the lower rate, only if they choose to do so. Asbestos abatement is included as an eligible expense as well as environmental remediation” through the grant, Herron said. “Once the phase II is completed we will know the remediation expense, which will be known before the 90 days. All of that (information) will be public and ultimately used by City Council in making a decision on this site.”

Staff writer Alan Olson contributed to this story.

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