By SHELLEY HANSON

WHEELING – Dan Milleson, 35, has owned his insurance business, Milestone Company, for 10 years, and now is working on another new venture – Waterfront Hall in Wheeling.

Milleson, a Cadiz resident, purchased the former Berry Supply building on Water Street beside Heritage Port and has been working renovate and redevelop it since.

He has multiple plans for the building. It will have an event space on the upper floor to hold up to 250 people; retail space and Airbnb apartments on the second floor; and a coffee shop and eateries on the first floor. There will be a house-run tavern and performance venue on the first floor as well. Milleson is seeking tenants to use the two kitchen spaces and coffee bar on the first floor.

Milleson said his typical work days are busy.

“My days are full of new and different problems that keep me thinking and collaborating,” he said. “I drink a lot of coffee. I’m having many meetings that are helping to bring Waterfront Hall into existence.

“The truth is that right now I am constantly seeking out people who know more than me with the hope of diminishing my blind spots.

“At night, I like to be back at my desk in Cadiz or Bridgeport working with my music on and incense burning.”

Milleson said what has compelled him to continue working and living in the Ohio Valley are his family “and the loving, supportive friends I made growing up here.”

He noted in his personal life he is most proud of his family and friends.

“I have a close family. Two loving parents, Rich and Lori. Sister Megan and brother-in-law Anthony. Two dear nieces, Kendall and Kinsey. Grandmother Ann,” he said.

At his independent insurance agency, Milleson said he works with and serves “a fabulous team of 16 people … with offices in Cadiz, Steubenville, and New Philadelphia, Ohio.”

A bright spot Milleson sees in the valley is the persistence of many entrepreneurs.

“We’re underdogs and everyone loves an underdog,” he said. “I see businesspeople who want to help other businesses in this area because they know we are seriously dependent on one another.

“And there is room for anyone here in the entrepreneurial environment who has persistence, knows how to communicate with other people, and is on time.”

Milleson advises young people just entering the workforce to “model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in.”

While running his business, Milleson has also gotten involved with groups and missions he believes in. He was involved with a political action committee that helped pass a $60 million Harrison Hills Schools levy in 2015.

A valuable lesson he learned in his own career began with a question.

“I began to ask myself this question on a regular basis: How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want? And then I began to act on the answer,” he said.

Milleson said he has enjoyed exploring new fields of work.

“I think one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about life so far is trying multiple fields,” he said. “I’m average in predicting what will happen with most of them, but I’m an eternal optimist and a hopeful idealist.”

A philosophy that he lives by from Hunter S. Thompson is, “Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life.”

Milleson said those who want more information about Waterfront Hall job opportunities can visit waterfronthall.com.