Out & About

City Leaders: Filling Need for Housing Is Crucial

WHEELING - Following the recent announcement that the newest apartment complex in Wheeling will soon be open, city leaders noted that the project will serve a crucial need for housing in the area that will be beneficial on many fronts.

This past week, Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott was given a tour of The Doris on Main - the newly constructed apartment complex at the main entrance to the city off of Interstate 70. Company CEO Jeffrey Woda and other representatives of the Woda Cooper Companies gave city leaders a first-hand look of the four-story complex, which offers 46 new one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, along with community spaces such as a media room, coffee lounge, fitness center, dog park, rooftop terrace and other modern amenities.

While the units at The Doris are considered to be market rate apartments, news about the complex welcoming its first tenants by Dec. 9 generated some grumbling reactions about the cost of the monthly rent at the new facility - ranging from $1,099 to $1,399 per month, with some utilities included. Members of Wheeling City Council responded to critics who voiced concerns indicating that the new project does not fulfill a need for affordable housing in the city.

"I’ve seen some similar comments following the mayor’s tour of The Doris and other commentary about affordability and ‘who is the market for?’ with properties that cost $800 to $1,200 a month," said Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum. "I empathize with those concerns. For a lot of folks, if you can’t afford to pay $500 a month, you’re like, ‘who in the city of Wheeling is paying $1,200 a month?’"

Talking to Woda and other developers, however, Ketchum said there indeed is a strong market for this type of housing in the Friendly City, and while it may not be considered "affordable" to some, it does fill a need for additional housing in the city. And in the grand scheme of things, additional housing can only help chip away at the availability problem and ultimately open the door to indirect solutions on all ends of the housing market.

"They do their market research - they don’t build on a hope and a promise," Ketchum said of the developers who are investing in Wheeling. "They do their own due diligence to ensure that these buildings will be filled."

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott applauded Woda for its latest investment in the Friendly City. The developer is expected to continue with other projects in the Wheeling area, and has spearheaded several successful housing projects in the recent past in South Wheeling, North Wheeling and in other communities in the Ohio Valley.

The Doris will have a tremendous impact in downtown Wheeling, the mayor stressed.

"I think they’re going to be a very nice addition," Elliott said of the new apartments. "Talking with the developer, he made it clear that the demand he has seen for that project is very, very strong. In fact, he expects that new housing project to be filled up sometime early in 2024."

Creation of new housing is a key driver to spur additional, supporting economic development, Elliott noted.

"I know we hear a lot of folks saying that housing is not a priority, but if you talk to business owners and if you talk to folks thinking about the big picture in terms of what this valley needs to move forward - housing, I think, is a bottleneck," he said. "So we’re going to continue doing the best we can to encourage more projects like that. I think it’s just a great example of what’s possible."

If more people are living downtown, then by default, more people are going to be patronizing downtown businesses and restaurants, the mayor noted.

"I want to let folks know that these are really important, as the mayor mentioned, to downtown commerce," Ketchum added. "It doesn’t mean that we are ignoring affordable housing."

Representing Ward 3, Ketchum noted the impact that Woda’s housing projects have had in South Wheeling in particular.

"I think that South Wheeling has seen the most significant investment in affordable housing in the past 15 years in the city of Wheeling through the LaBelle Green, Owens Green and Hobbs Green."

Ketchum said those Woda complexes do serve the need for affordable housing, as some are for tenants ages 55 and up and some are also HUD eligible and Section 8 approved housing units.

"Those are in my neighborhood, and they’re really beautiful," she said. "Affordable housing is key, but we also have a wide demographic of people who we are focused on."