Ohio River Currents exclusive
For roughly a century, the city of Weirton, West Virginia – the city Weirton Steel built – relied on the big brother located along the Ohio River for employment, tax base, providing funding for charities, etc.
Generations of families from the West Virginia/Ohio/Pennsylvania region prospered and suffered with the ups and downs of the steel industry while employed with Weirton Steel. More than 14,000 once worked at the massive complex.
But changing economics worldwide, insufficient facility investment, out-of-state owners that did not care about the company/town like local ownership all combined until the familiar sights and sounds of steelmaking faded from the banks of the Ohio.
What do to with 1,100 acres of property dedicated to making steel, replete with brownfields that must be remediated to attract potential tenants?
The best case is to sell the entire parcel, including Browns Island, 230 acres in the middle of the Ohio River, to one buyer – a buyer with years of experience dealing with massive brownfields sites, repurposing said sites into multi-purpose locations that cater to industrial, commercial retail, even residential, users.
The partner for Weirton was the Frontier Group of Companies, which has participated in similar repurposing projects in North and South America, including in the Ohio River Valley and sites in and not far from its Buffalo, New York, headquarters.
Welcome to Frontier Crossings.
“We saw the property as a development opportunity; we have familiarity with brownfield sites of this size and scope,” said Rob Zuchlewski, chief operating officer of the Frontier Group.
Two years of negotiating with the Weirton Steel property’s most recent owner, the world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, ended in 2017.
Since that time, Frontier has moved slowly, understanding such a huge project – needing remediation, buildings razed, easements secured to all parts of the property – takes time.
NAI Ohio River Corridor is the brokerage of record charged with marketing Frontier Crossings. “We’ve been marketing the property, and have been talking to a number of people,” broker, Bryce Custer said. “The interest has come from companies both domestic and international.”
The first deal at Frontier Crossings since Frontier took over three years ago was the sale of the mill’s former Central Machine Shop to oil and gas industry company Bidell Gas Compression from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This deal, brokered by Custer showed the benefit of what the Weirton, WV region has to offer both domestically and internationally.
Around that time was the beginning of remediation efforts, including asbestos abatement, universal waste collection and disposal, contaminated soils cleanup and utility relocation.
“About 95% of the demolition work is now done,” according to Zuchlewski. “We’re saving a half-dozen buildings to be repurposed.”
The site already includes more than 10 miles of rail access, 33 permitted barge cells on the Ohio River, large capacity utility services and level property which has been monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of cleanup operations.
Major highways, including state and federal roads, are located within minutes of the site, while Pittsburgh International Airport is less than a half-hour from Frontier Crossings – closer than some areas within the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area.
“We believe Frontier has done a magnificent job is a short period of time,” said Joe DiBartolomeo, Weirton’s City Manager. “This project is more than a huge deal for Weirton, more than a big deal for the (West Virginia) Panhandle – it’s a big deal for the whole (Ohio River) Valley.
DiBartolomeo added the project has received political support at the city, state and federal level. The most recent example came earlier in May when Weirton applied for a BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) grant to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“The $19.2 million applied for would be used to improve the roadway system to and through the property, including Browns Island,” Zuchlewski said.
Weirton is hoping to move at “WARP” speed to get things moving at Frontier Crossings. WARP, or Weirton Area Reuse Plan, was developed as part of a public-private partnership between the city, Frontier, and the Business Development Corporation (BDC) of the Northern Panhandle (of West Virginia).
The Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, in its role as the regionally designated Metropolitan Planning Commission, also contributed additional resources to help prepare the WARP.
“Thrasher became interested in the Frontier Crossings project while we were helping the Client Group (Weirton, Frontier, the BDC, Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center, engineering-architectural-field services firm The Thrasher Group, and consultant DJS Ventures) with the WARP Plan,” said Steve Hamit, PE, CPESC, regional manager for Thrasher.
“The thought of being able to help a region that has been devastated through the changes over time. … To … be part of a community totally reinventing themselves is an engineer’s dream.”
Thrasher prepared and was the author of the WARP.
Frontier’s Zuchlewski said if the BUILD grant is approved by the federal DOT, construction would begin in the first quarter of 2021.
To give potentials tenants a taste of what’s possible, Frontier is partnering with New Mexico-based solar energy firm One Sun, which plans to build a 40-megawatt solar farm on Browns Island. Construction is expected to begin by the fourth quarter of this year.
For additional information on Frontier Crossings, or other Ohio River projects that Frontier Corp is working on in Moundsville, WV and LeTart, WV, contact Broker Bryce Custer, SIOR, CCIM at (330) 418-9287 or [email protected]