Trending
There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel in the saga of whether the McLure Hotel could open its doors again.
At a Wednesday court hearing, an attorney for McLure Hotel owner FA Management Corp., headed by Fran Garey, told Municipal Court Judge Jeffrey Miller that there was a potential buyer for the property, the purchase process was underway and a closing date was set for Sept. 4.
The potential buyer's name wasn't divulged publicly at the hearing, but the revelation brought the McLure a step closer to reopening. Its doors have been closed since November 2024, when the building was condemned for multiple code violations.
Miller found FA Management guilty of nine code violations and levied a $1 million fine, but the City of Wheeling said it would accept a $250,000 fine if the hotel would be sold or have an "extremely good faith effort" to sell within 90 days.
With this week's announcement, it looks like that effort has been made. And it couldn't have come soon enough.
The McLure is a piece of Wheeling history. It opened its doors in 1852, before West Virginia was even a state, and has hosted at least 11 United States presidents, along with many other dignitaries. Recent years, however, have not been kind to the property.
The hotel was acquired by Roxby Development in 2021 with an auction bid of $6.245 million, but Roxby was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and company head Jeffrey Morris was convicted of federal wire fraud and tax fraud charges and sentenced to five years in prison.
FA Management reacquired the hotel at a 2023 bankruptcy auction for a $5.668 million credit bid, the amount Roxby still owed FA Management.
The McLure wouldn't stay open for long. The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department shut down the hotel side of the McLure, citing malfunctioning elevators, mold and sewage water spreading onto the floors of the building, then the city condemned the apartment side.
It was a shameful situation for a property that had been so integral to downtown Wheeling in decades past. Now, hopefully things will turn around.
Miller, for his part was cautiously optimistic, reminding everyone in the courtroom that other potential buyers have come and gone over the last couple of years.
"Now, we've seen this before from Ms. Garey with things falling apart at the last minute," he said, "so that's why I'm going to take a kind of wait-and-see approach."
A sale needs to come through, sooner than later. A new owner needs to bring the McLure into a new era, one that allows the hotel to be operational.
Downtown Wheeling is anticipating a new luxury hotel in the next few years with the construction of the JC Lando hotel on the Ohio River waterfront. But another hotel could complement the Lando -- or the property could be converted to another use.
Either way, the McLure can no longer sit idle and empty. Its history has earned it another chapter in its existence. Let's hope this potential sale goes through and a new owner takes over who will restore the property and make it viable once again.