File Photo by Eric Ayres The McLure Hotel — known to many as the McLure House — boasted a fresh new exterior look this year shortly after Roxby Development took ownership of the historic downtown hotel.

WHEELING — The Friendly City has become a hotbed for redevelopment with its treasure trove of historic structures — and in 2021, Roxby Development raised eyebrows and turned heads with an array of major projects and substantial investments into the city.

While there has been a big buzz about a number of other planned projects in Wheeling, Roxby has taken an approach of avoiding the hype and letting its projects speak for themselves — by showcasing its gems to the public, even while work is in progress.

Historic tax credits and other incentives are helping developers bring new projects to life in Wheeling, and in turn, the city as a whole is benefiting from the growth.

Jeffrey Morris, president of Roxby Development, has been busy over the past several months working with his team and with state and city leaders to help restore the luster of some of the city’s most precious gems.

“Wheeling has the greatest potential to bring people and prosperity back to West Virginia,” Morris said this week. “The governor has already laid the groundwork to encourage investment in tourism, emerging industries and economic development. We intend to take advantage of those incentives and assist in the sustainable growth of our local economy. Wheeling’s proximity to several metropolitan areas makes our location a gateway to the state, potentially giving millions of visitors a launch point to explore all that West Virginia has to offer.”

In 2020, Roxby Development made headlines with its effort to redevelop the Mt. Carmel Monastery into a new boutique hotel, complete with a bar, restaurant, music and reception hall, and other trendy features. As that effort continued into 2021, the Roxby team stunned many people in the public when they announced the purchase of the McLure Hotel downtown and plans for a major renovation there.

Roxby has since acquired the Scottish Rite Cathedral, yet another landmark in the city, and has hosted a handful of public and private events in the majestic building — a facility that for more than 100 years had rarely been seen by anyone outside of its membership of Freemasons.

Other Roxby acquisitions and projects include the Cliff House West (formerly the Point Overlook Museum) with spectacular views of downtown Wheeling from its hilltop perch on Grandview Street, and the stately 12th Street Garage. In addition to the real estate and development pillars of the company, Roxby Labs has emerged in 2021 as the only CLIA certified, high-complexity reference laboratory performing COVID PCR testing in the Northern Panhandle.

Morris indicated that the city of Wheeling and the state of West Virginia’s multimillion-dollar investments into Interstate 70, the Downtown Streetscape project and other ventures to revitalize the downtown can only complement the plans that are unfolding from Roxby’s drawing board — with other promising ventures yet to be announced.

“The state, Mayor (Glenn) Elliott and city council are well underway with extensive and necessary infrastructural improvements to support this vision,” Morris said. “Our company has followed their lead. We have acquired and begun renovations on several historic landmarks throughout the city. Sometimes it can be a messy and inconvenient process, but you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.”

This new chapter of growth goes beyond the individual projects spearheaded by Roxby Development, Morris said.

“The end goal is revitalization of not only the architectural gems of Wheeling, but the community as a whole,” he explained. “We want to bring the streets of Wheeling back to life, and flood the community with culture, art, music and science. We have an abundance of talented people in Wheeling and more still who hail from the area and have since left. Wouldn’t it be great if people didn’t have to leave to pursue their passions?”

More and more, entrepreneurs and visionaries are embracing the past while looking to the future, and the Friendly City is promising to repave a promising road for generations of today and future generations to come.

“We want to give the citizens of Wheeling more reasons to stay, encourage those that have left to return, and inspire others to come and flourish,” Morris said.