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The proposed Visitors and Heritage Center that will sit on the site of the old Wheeling Inn is another step toward reality.
The Wheeling-Ohio County Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with its partners in the project have picked three finalists for the design and engineering of the new facility.
The winning company will work hand in hand with the CVB and others from the first steps of the project, which will give downtown Wheeling a new look to its entrance.
Mills Group, Vridian and Desmone will interview with the CVB and others sometime in October, describing to the group how their company can best help complete the vision of the new visitors center. CVB Executive Director Frank O'Brien said Friday that the group will pick its new partner by the end of October.
"We have the opportunity to build a very important gateway to the city of Wheeling," O'Brien said.
The CVB, in conjunction with Wheeling Heritage, the City of Wheeling, Ohio County and the Regional Economic Development Partnership, fielded six design and engineering proposals for the project.
The proposals, O'Brien said, were evaluated on their alignment with the project's vision, scope of work, schedule, proposed project team members and experiences working in West Virginia.
What wasn't part of the initial round was a proposed budget. O'Brien said the group wanted the bidding companies to focus more on how they would best complete the project's goals, though all six understood the estimated budget for the project of $13-$16 million. Budget figures will be a part of the discussions among the finalists, O'Brien said.
Those finalists also understand what the group's overall vision of the center will be, O'Brien said. A prime component is its location right next to the Wheeling Suspension Bridge.
"It would be, number one, to showcase the bridge," he said, "to make sure that there are sight lines from Main Street to the bridge to take advantage of the fact that we're on the Ohio River. And we want to create a visitor center-slash-welcome center-slash-cultural facility-slash-public space. So those six companies outlined how they saw our vision added to how they would maximize what we were thinking about."
Once this company is chosen, the group will publicly advertise a request for proposal for the Wheeling Inn's environmental remediation and demolition work. O'Brien said it was important for the design company to be on board before any work begins.
The CVB and its partners want that company to be familiar and comfortable with the various companies who will perform the individual tasks needed to make the visitors center a reality.
The CVB bought the old Wheeling Inn for $1.7 million in January for the purpose of knocking down the old hotel and building a visitors center in its place. The CVB and its partners are working with Tipping Point, a Youngstown, Ohio-based developer, in the endeavor.