Eric Ayres Trending
WHEELING -- City Council on Thursday approved a resolution that will allow City Manager Robert Herron to execute a letter of intent with an unnamed entity that soon could be the new owner of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus in Center Wheeling.
"It is anticipated that the letter of intent shall begin a series of public meetings, future negotiations and necessary resolutions and/or ordinances to carry out the purpose of development and future utilization of the former OVMC campus in the best interest of the city of Wheeling and the community," the resolution stated.
Today, a major economic development announcement with city, Ohio County and WVU Medicine officials is scheduled to take place at the OVMC campus.
Council members passed the resolution during the 30-second meeting and then went behind closed doors to discuss a potential property acquisition that officials said was "completely unrelated" to the OVMC matter.
City leaders declined to comment further on the resolution in light of today's scheduled announcement, only noting that the action was "a continuation of our ongoing efforts to develop this site."
City taxpayers acquired the former hospital site and all but one of its buildings after OVMC ceased operations in 2019. The former Robert C. Byrd Adolescent Behavioral Health Services facility ceased operations when OVMC closed in 2019, but its building on Eoff Street -- a newer building constructed in 2009 -- was not part of the acquisition of buildings on the former hospital campus.
That building is now owned by Orchard Park Hospital LLC, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Children's Home of Wheeling, and soon will house a 30-bed adolescent acute care psychiatric hospital.
After the OVMC acquisition, city officials had estimated its value to be approximately $40 million. MPT, the former owner of the site, offered to transfer the property to the city for basically the price of any outstanding taxes and expenses associated with closing costs.
As part of the potential future work, earlier this month it was announced that a $500,000 federal earmark had been secured for asbestos abatement in the former Nurses Residence building. That building had been slated for demolition since the time the city took ownership of the property.