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Structural Issues: West Virginia University at Parkersburg making repairs to former Ohio Valley University campus

By Brett Dunlap 6 min read

PARKERSBURG -- West Virginia University at Parkersburg has begun the work on turning the former Ohio Valley University campus into the new WVUP Incubator and Technology Center (ITC).

During the WVUP Board of Governors meeting this week, board member Savannah Morgan, chair of the Administrative Services Committee, said work is beginning to address the structural issues of the former Stotts Administration Building where the new ITC will be located.

"It has essentially sat vacant for about three years," she said. "To say the property was in rough shape is allowing a bit there."

OVU shut its doors in December 2021, amid financial and academic struggles. WVUP announced last summer it was purchasing the 225.22-acre property for $4.6 million as part of a $10 million gift from The Ross Foundation, the largest in the school's history. The WVUP Foundation, the school's fundraising arm, closed on the purchase just before Thanksgiving 2023.

In reviewing pictures taken by Pickering and Associates, Morgan said there were a lot of areas where committee members thought there were skylights in the building, but it turns out those were places where holes developed.

"There is now a lot of natural light in the facility," Morgan said with a laugh.

The focus is getting these issues handled and making the building able to house the programs WVUP officials want to put out there.

"There is a lot of focus on just bringing it up to be usable," Morgan said.

The building has new boilers installed in the Stotts building at a cost of $370,000.

"To see the new boilers, it is really exciting to see how far we have come," Morgan said.

Officials will also replace the cooling system, but since work will be going on there this summer, the cooling system is not an immediate priority.

The priorities will be to get heat in the building as well as upgrade its electrical system to bring it up to code.

WVUP President Torie Jackson said there were a lot of structural issues with the roof and work has begun on addressing those.

"We are working to replace roofs this summer," she said. "We have already been working on a few."

Jackson estimates the roof repair costs will be $1.5 million. They are forming manufacturing partnerships to get the roof work done. The WVUP Foundation is securing $700,000 in grants to cover some of the roof work.

The building had a lot of deferred maintenance that did not get fixed and a priority has been getting moisture out of the building and to do that work is being done to secure the building, Jackson said.

Morgan said plans are underway to replace the building's 468 windows as well as all 32 exterior doors.

"Many of them were not doing a good job of keeping moisture out," Jackson said.

There is $1.25 million in congressional money being made available through the Wood County Development Authority the university has gotten to replace the windows and doors.

They have to take care of keeping moisture out of the building before they can begin any interior renovation work, Jackson said.

They will also be doing asbestos removal work this summer.

Jackson said since they were going to be doing massive renovations to the building anyway, they thought removing the asbestos to begin with would be a good idea. They are getting final costs on that.

"We just want to remove all of it so we don't have to worry about it in the future," Jackson said. "It is best for us to remove the issue now when we are in a construction timeframe."

They emptied the building of furniture, books and more. Some furniture they are keeping and it is being stored in the former chapel and cafeteria.

All of the carpet has been removed and Jackson said there are plans for some polished concrete flooring in parts of the building depending on what the use will be.

"Our goal is to get the windows, doors, floors and the asbestos removal done during the summer months," Jackson said. "We are hoping to have that done by mid-August."

They are also planning on doing a large electrical upgrade this summer. It is estimated to cost around $800,000.

After sitting idle for three years, renovation work and repairs will need to be done to all the restrooms in the building. The building was originally built in 1963 and was originally a seminary so many of the bathrooms were originally geared towards men with superficial changes made over the years to better accommodate women. Jackson said they will determine which restrooms they will keep, their placement and what changes will have to be made to modernize them.

They are also evaluating which interior wooden doors to keep. A number can be refinished which would save money rather than having them replaced, Jackson said.

There are some contractors doing certain work right now. Officials are getting cost estimates together to see who will be able to do the other work as a lot of the work will be done in phases.

The plan is to have work underway this summer, Jackson said.

"June, July and August will be a very busy time at that facility," she said.

The priority right now is the Stotts Building as the future home of the WVUP ITC, which will focus not only on technological degrees but also provide incubator space for businesses. Eventually, officials will also make plans and do renovation work on Smith and Rampy Hall, the former residence halls.

The former chapel in the Stotts Building is being planned to be used for large meetings with a number of breakout meeting rooms adjacent to the space that will be utilized. Jackson said some of the rooms are being enlarged to accommodate that.

Programs planned to be moved over there include computer science, computer information technology and a bachelor of applied technology, including cybersecurity and network administration. One day, they want to set up a mechanical engineering program there.

Plans are to have the initial renovations done so some classes and other operations will be ready to go for the Fall 2025 semester.

The building will have a combination of education and business spaces where the two can operate together, allowing businesses to grow and develop as well as providing educational opportunities to students. Plans are to have around 25 businesses eventually operating at the site.

"The goal is to have the lease income to offset the maintenance and upkeep of such a large space," Morgan said.

"It is a very mixed-use building where people will be able to go to class and go to work,'' Jackson said.

She is already pleased with some of the visible progress made on the facility.

"I am thrilled with the progress we have made on the facility," Jackson said. "I believe everyday we go over there we can see the vision we have is coming together.

"In the next three months we will see even more of that and this fall we will begin renovating the spaces. I think it will be a very exciting time."

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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