St. Joseph’s Landing building manager Jon Defibaugh, center, cuts the ribbon held by Parkersburg Mayor-elect Tom Joyce, left, and West Virginia state Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, at the former hospital site Monday. Siltstone Resources LLC purchased the property earlier this year and is exploring various uses for it. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Although work has been going on for months, the next chapter of the former St. Joseph’s Hospital officially began Monday with a ribbon-cutting.

More than 30 local officials, Chamber of Commerce of the Mid-Ohio Valley members and others attended the event, said Jon Defibaugh, building manager for the former hospital complex sold to Siltstone Resources LLC by Camden Clark Medical Center earlier this year.

“It was nice to see the backing,” he said.

Among those in attendance were two individuals who spent a lot of time at St. Joseph’s over the years — Parkersburg Mayor-elect Tom Joyce, who served as safety-service director at the hospital, and Chamber of Commerce of the Mid-Ohio Valley President and CEO Jill Parsons, who was its vice president.

“They’ve got 840-some-thousand square feet of building that over time I think can be an asset (in) the City of Parkersburg,” Joyce said. “They’re taking ideas, and they’re working the property.”

One of the earliest ventures was the establishment of Milestones Senior Living, an assisted living facility that currently has 11 residents. Defibaugh said the second phase of work will expand Milestone’s capacity to 36 people and he and Siltstone are looking at other resources to complement that use. The former cafeteria is expected to be reopened as a cafe in the next month or so.

Defibaugh moved his own business, MOVID Studios, to the campus. Meeting rooms will soon be open to the public, as well as hourly rental office space. The physicians office building on the property is about 50 percent full.

As more businesses come in, it will be easier for people to see other potential uses, Parsons said.

“It’ll be difficult (at first) for people who know it as a health care facility,” she said. “Today’s event was really an opportunity to get lots of chamber members in there.”

While some health-related ventures are possible, one of the conditions of the sale was that Siltstone could not use the property to operate any inpatient or outpatient health care service currently provided by Camden Clark and its affiliates. The hospital served as a campus of Camden Clark from 2011 to until its closure in 2014.

Defibaugh said people with ideas for the property can share them online at www.facebook.com/stjoelanding or sjhcwv.com.

“I think that there’s a great opportunity for the community to get involved with it,” he said.