Wheeling Planning Commission Approves Marsh Wheeling Lofts Site Plan
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WHEELING -- Officials behind the Woda Cooper Companies' proposed Marsh Wheeling Lofts believe there is a healthy market for residential living in downtown Wheeling that is not at risk of being "oversaturated" by the abundance of projects that are moving forward.
Thomas Simons, senior vice president of the Woda Cooper Companies, and Charles Garvick, president of Chadan Engineering, appeared before the Wheeling Planning Commission Monday night for a site plan review of the Marsh Wheeling Lofts project.
The Woda project aims to build a new four-story, 46-unit apartment complex on a vacant lot in the 900 block of Main Street.
Planning Commissioner William Schwarz asked if the developers had any concerns that downtown Wheeling may get "saturated" with residential properties in light of the fact that the Historic Wheeling-Pitt Lofts project is moving forward as well, promising to create 128 new apartment units just two blocks away.
"Do you have any concerns that we'll end up with too many unfilled apartments in the downtown area?" Schwarz asked.
"That's a great question," Simons said. "Obviously on the lending side, we had to do a complete market study analysis of the community that we're in. This is market rate -- this is not workforce housing like LaBelle Greene. With our waiting list at Boury Lofts, we don't think there will be an issue, even with the Wheeling-Pitt building if that gets completed. We're very excited about these units."
The Woda Cooper Companies have spearheaded several successful housing projects in the city in recent years -- including the award-winning Boury Lofts property and the Stone Center Lofts downtown, as well as several phases of the LaBelle Greene workforce housing complexes in South Wheeling and the Providence Greene senior living apartments in North Wheeling.
Simons said they believe there is a strong market for downtown residential living in the Friendly City, and Woda is working to help fill that void with new apartments.
Planning Commission members inquired about parking for the Marsh Wheeling Lofts, as only five parking spaces were included in the plans. Wheeling's Director of Building and Planning Tom Connelly said that residential and commercial buildings in the downtown area do not have to provide off-street parking as they may in other areas of the city where zoning requirements differ.
"There is no parking requirement in the downtown," Connelly said, noting that parking garages and other public parking areas are available.
"We do have an agreement with the city of Wheeling," Simons said. "We're going to lease 40 to 41 parking spots in the 10th Street Parking Garage. We have an agreement to enter into a 10-year lease with four additional extensions over the years for parking in the garage. We have at least 30 years."
Planning Commission Vice Chairman Jeremy West asked the developers if any core samples had been taken to verify that the foundation is suitable for this development, noting that there appears to be some settlement on the surface lot where the lofts are to be built.
"I don't ever remember a building there," West said. "As far as I've known, it's always been a parking lot. That lot, especially at the entrance, is really starting to sink."
Simons said they have done two phases of soil sampling.
"We've done the geotechnical report for it already, and there is some fill at various locations there," Garvick added. "It's not deep -- maybe two to four feet in some areas -- but that will all be addressed during the construction phase."
If everything moves forward as planned, the project is expected to get under construction in July of this year and be completed in September 2022.
Planning Commissioner Jeff Mauck noted that the lofts' site is located at a very busy intersection that will be getting even busier in the future while the Interstate 70 work continues and the Wheeling Downtown Streetscape Project gets underway. Some commissioners expressed concerns about availability of a staging area for construction material and equipment.
"Why did you all chose the name of Marsh Wheeling Lofts," Wheeling City Councilman and Planning Commission member Dave Palmer asked, stating that he found it somewhat confusing since the building to the north of the site is the former Marsh Wheeling Stogie building with the iconic sign that still sits atop it.
"We had years ago looked at that building," Simons said, noting that the Woda Group was interested in a rehabilitation project similar to their Boury Lofts development, but that plan did not materialize for various reasons. "We're not sure that building will always be there. We wanted to make sure at least the name will be there. It's just a historical name."
Palmer noted that if someone did want to develop the Marsh Wheeling Stogies building, they may be upset that the name already will have been taken by an apartment complex next door.
Nonetheless, the site plan review was unanimously approved. Attending an in-person meeting for the first time since last fall, Planning Commission members joked that they nearly forgot how to cast electronic votes in city council chambers after meeting via Zoom for so many months because of the pandemic.
"I think this will be an enhancement to the gateway of our city, especially coming off of the bridge," Mauck said of the Marsh Wheeling Lofts project. "It will dress it up quite nicely. Hopefully it will be an inspiration for others in the area who already have businesses and buildings that they own."