Several Former OVMC Buildings Will Meet Wrecking Ball Soon
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WHEELING -- Officials in the city of Wheeling are ready to get the ball rolling -- the wrecking ball, that is -- on action that will lead to the demolition of the buildings that remain standing on the former Ohio Valley Medical Center Campus.
Members of the Wheeling Municipal Building Commission are scheduled to meet at noon on Wednesday. The commission is expected to elect new officers for their 2023 calendar year, if needed, and to consider for adoption on a first reading of a proposed demolition ordinance.
"All of the OVMC buildings -- there are seven of them -- are to be demolished," Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said on Monday.
Two repurposed buildings on the former hospital campus will not be affected by the looming action. They include the former Valley Professional Building on Chapline Street, which is now home to the new, state-of-the-art Wheeling Police Department Headquarters, and the former Robert C. Byrd Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health Center on Eoff Street, which was not part of the city of Wheeling's acquisition of the former buildings on the campus.
The Robert C. Byrd Center building is slated to be the site of the new Orchard Park Hospital, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Children's Home of Wheeling which is creating an adolescent acute care psychiatric hospital there.
Once the other buildings are cleared, West Virginia United Health System Inc. -- doing business as West Virginia University Health System -- will construct a new comprehensive cancer center at the site.
Herron noted that bids are being received for the major demolition through the middle of this month, and a contract will likely be awarded this summer.
"Bids are due to West Virginia University Health System in mid-July with a 60-day bid hold," he said. "The Wheeling Municipal Building Commission is involved as the legal municipal entity in West Virginia that is permitted to lease property -- which will be to West Virginia University Health System long-term -- and to sell bonds to effectuate the lease improvements, in this case improving the land by demolition."
Several weeks ago, Wheeling City Council passed an ordinance to transfer the former OVMC property from the city to the Wheeling Municipal Building Commission as the first step in bringing the regional cancer center project to fruition.
When city and county leaders joined WVU Medicine officials to announce the new regional cancer center project, Herron explained that the city of Wheeling would contribute $2 million toward demolition of the OVMC campus buildings, as will the county. WVU Medicine will contribute $3 million for demolition, and the city had already secured federal funding in the amount of $500,000 for asbestos abatement. Another $2.2 million was being pursued through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loan/grant to serve as a contingency fund in the event that abatement and demolition costs exceed initial estimates.
Overall, the demolition was projected to cost between $7 million and $9 million and is expected to take between six to 12 months to complete.
According to the ordinance being considered by the commission Wednesday, the contract for demolition will include asbestos abatement and site preparation. The ordinance also addresses the issuance of up to $20 million in lease revenue bonds.
"Bond payments are made by the lease payments to the commission," Herron said.
Initial plans for the regional cancer center by WVU Medicine and the WVU Cancer Institute call for a four-story facility with between 75,000 and 90,000 square feet of space, a workforce of about 150 employees and a service volume of about 40,000 patient visits per year. Overall cost of the project is estimated to be around $70 million, and it could open within the next four years.
Over the past several months, a number of local organizations have helped salvage records and historic artifacts from inside the OVMC campus buildings, most of which have remained vacant since the hospital closed its doors permanently in the fall of 2019 after serving the community for generations.
The Wheeling Municipal Building Commission -- consisting of Mike Nau, Gene Fahey and David Miller -- are scheduled to meet at noon on Wednesday in the conference room of the City Manager's office.