The Green Devil Civic Center, also known as the former White Sulphur Springs Junior High, has been sold by the city and will soon be undergoing renovations.
“The time has come to share the news of an exciting project we’ve been working on for some time,” wrote Mayor Bruce Bowling in a social media post. “The city of [White Sulphur Springs] is happy to announce a private investor has purchased the WSS High School and plans to invest $3 million into the historic facility and transform it into a hotel and events center. The Green Devil Civic Center Building Commission, City Council, and myself have all approved this purchase. The new owners are working with those groups currently using the facility, like WSS Youth Basketball and the WISH Center, to ensure a smooth transition.”
DOF Equity Plus LLC purchased the center, a LLC similar to others who purchased several properties along Main Street earlier this year. Previously, Charles Hammerman, CEO and president of The Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF), spoke to The West Virginia Daily News about filling the community’s needs and creating a potential “Center For Excellence,” an evidence-based addiction treatment center.
DOF’s purchases included a strip of store fronts on Main Street where Pizza Hut is located and several houses nearby Hammerman hoped to renovate and make handicapped accessible. Referring to the city’s comprehensive plan, Hammerman explained in May that the organization would move slowly and would develop properties “with what the community needs, not what we want to see.”
“We try to go into a community and understand their needs, we don’t try to dictate what they’re going to want or have,” Hammerman said. “We listen very carefully and try to respond to that community. … This is an amazing city and, while what we will ultimately create in order to address the substance issue will happen, it will happen slowly, it will happen with consensus so that people understand what’s going on. … I know there are a lot of people who come into White Sulphur or West Virginia to try to ‘fix it.’ We’re not here to ‘fix,’ you’re not a community that needs to be fixed.”
The school, built in 1912, was given to the city approximately 30 years ago by the Greenbrier County Board of Education after the junior high schools were consolidated. The city has made “significant efforts” to maintain and use the facility for “the public good despite the extensive costs involved for upkeep, utilities, and insurance,” according to a press release issued by the city about the sale.
According to the release, the civic center will be transformed into a “hotel and events center” after a $3 million renovation process. The purchase relieves the city from the continued expense of upkeep and will generate revenue for the city through building permit fees, business and occupation taxes, and increased visitor foot traffic downtown.
“A lot of people went through that school here in town,” Bowling explained. “That’s the best way to keep the building in tact and have a way for it to pay for itself. … We’re real tickled. [Hammerman] told me the scene of the hotel will be the school. In other words, the sign over the principal’s office will go over the manager’s office. He’s looking forward to having fun with this thing.”
Both Bowling’s post and the press release note that White Sulphur Springs currently lacks a hotel within city limits.
This sale is consistent with the City’s Comprehensive Plan for future development and growth in the City,” reads the press release. “Along with the Barrel Company, a new wellness center and pool, streetscape and many other new businesses downtown, it is an exciting time to work and live in the Spa City!”
Read more in the Thursday, December 19, 2019, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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