HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Just a block past Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards football stadium facilities in Huntington sits some vacant land.
A portion of it was at one time going to be the new site of Marshall’s baseball stadium, but those plans changed.
If you’ve driven down 5th Avenue lately, you may have seen stakes in the ground.
So we started asking questions and met up with the developer of the property to ask what’s going on?
SAGER: “How big is all of this? How much square footage is here?
ROSWALL: “It’ about 12 acres.”
Brent Roswall is very familiar with the Mountain State, especially the Huntington-Barboursville area, developing properties like Merritt’s Creek Farm, Tanyard Station and most recently, Stadium Center.
Now, he’s working on something new in the jewel city.
SAGER: “So, tell me where we are now.”
ROSWALL: “We’re located between 3rd and 5th Avenue and 24th Street, very close to Marshall University. We hope this to be our next retail development.”
The 12 acre area is three different parcels of land – two that are owned by Marshall University and one by the Huntington Municipal Development Authority.
SAGER: ”You’re not allowed to say what’s coming here yet or possibly coming?
ROSWALL: “Not yet, but I will say it’s over 100,000 sq. ft of retail, and we’ll have some restaurants. It’s been a collaborative effort between the City of Huntington, Marshall University, and HMDA. We’ve been working on this… It started around 2020 when it first came up. It’s taken awhile to get here.”
SAGER: “Are you excited about the prospects of what could be coming to this area?
ROSWALL: “Very excited. I’m excited for the City of Huntington, and Marshall University. What Marshall University is doing with the new Cyber Security. In fact our tenant, our main tenant, was here a few weeks ago and heard the spiel. and went away saying, “Wow! That’s incredible.”
SAGER: “Do you have a timeline yet? Or is that still up in the air?
ROSWALL: “We’re working on it. We’re doing due diligence. The tenants are doing due diligence. People are spending money, So, once we get the due diligence done we’ll be better able to figure out the timeline, but it is a slow process.”
SAGER: “Let me ask you about the stakes. If someone is driving down 5th Avenue are you allowed to talk about what’s happening?”
ROSWALL: “This is just due diligence with the ground, how it will be developed environmentally and with the storm system and the road system. Just totally due diligence going on right now.
SAGER: “There are going to be some upgrade for what’s going to be going on here. Are you allowed to talk about any of that?
ROSWALL: “Third Avenue and Fifth Avenue are having improvements. Also, we’ll be improving 24th Street. That will be to allow for the additional traffic that we’re going to generate with the development.”
SAGER: “Is there anything else you’d want to say about how you got involved with Marshall and HMDA?
ROSWALL: ”Our company is heavily involved in the State of West Virginia. We just recently completed Stadium Center, and we’ve known about this property for a long time now. It’s the last fairly sizable piece of property able to be developed in the City of Huntington. So, for a tenant that’s coming the size they are, they need a big site. This is the only site that will accommodate them. We want the new tenant coming to the State of West Virginia and the City of Huntington and not across the river. So, we feel like this site works for them. They feel like it also. Hopefully we’ll get it done.”
Roswall says he also has some other additional projects in Huntington he hopes to complete and announce soon.
