January 12, 2025
HURRICANE, W.Va. — The Putnam County Economic Development Authority is getting $5 million dollars to develop infrastructure and address future housing needs.
Recently, Governor Jim Justice awarded the Economic Enhancement Grant through the West Virginia Water Development Authority to Putnam County Economic Development. It will go towards the needed infrastructure to help build more homes in the area.
Based on projected job growth through major companies getting established in the region such as Nuccor Steel and Berkshire Hathaway, Putnam County Development Authority Executive Director Morganne Tenney said accommodations for those new employees coming in are urgent.
“In order to have more jobs, you have to have somewhere for those people to live,” Tenney said.
Tenney said the $5 million grant will specifically go towards a public utility, sewer, water and the extension of any type of service lines, as well as the infrastructure of roads. She said all of this will help lay the foundation down for building more homes in the area.
“This will help us attract a builder who can come in and build the quantity at the speed we need houses,” she said.
For this particular project, Tenney said they are looking to implement the funding in two locations in Putnam County, Hurricane and Fraziers Bottom. She said it will extend utilities onto two different pieces of property.
Tenney said Stonewall Capital, an infrastructure development group, will build out the infrastructure, the storm water, and all that goes into it. She said they will then work with Vertical Builders to buy their lot to build the homes, town homes, and single-story villas.
Tenney said a lot more goes into it than what people might think with getting a home on a piece of land.
“It’s not just an empty field that you can sell, right, there’s so many things that have to line up for an economic development deal like this to happen,” she said. “First of all, we don’t always own the property, it comes down to who owns the property, who’s willing to sell it and at what price, and then after that you have to unfold, you know, are there archeological issues, is it in a floodplain, do you have the utilities there.”
She said in November of 2024, the sales price on homes in Putnam County was 100%.
Tenney said it’s such a strong seller’s market in the area right now, because there is a definite housing shortage in the county as well as across the entire Kanawha Valley.
The year before, in 2023, the local economic development organization Advantage Valley conducted a housing survey across ten counties– Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, Roane, and Wayne– and what they found was that the area needed about 10,000 for-rent units and around 20,000 for-sale units.
Tenney said the need for more housing was then very evident, but how to go about implementing a real-estate endeavor to that degree needed some more research and planning.
“We knew a couple of years ago that we were going to need more houses, but we didn’t know how to quantify it before the study came out, we knew it, economic developers, relators, we all knew it, but we didn’t know how to quantify it,” Tenney said.
The study also showed that there were about 600 homes available for purchase in Oct. 2023, representing only about 0.4% of the housing stock.
In addition, the survey, which was taken by local economic developers, also indicated that about 70% in the number of housing units that were on the market from early 2019 to 2023 had reduced in value. So, while the homes were selling at or above the asking price, they were not of the same value or quality they were when they were new.
Tenney said economic developers and potential home-buyers look for a lot more than just the quality of the home and property themselves, however, but they look at the overall surrounding location as well.
She said that’s why it’s important to have everyone on board with the housing development project, from businesses big and small, schools, churches, organizations and the whole community at large.
Tenney said they have been working with the Putnam County School District to be able to provide the quality education new out-of-state home-buyers moving to the area for employment are seeking for their children.
She said they have been very supportive of these development plans, which has been great, because some people in the community are not so supportive of it and are reluctant for the population to grow any larger.
Tenney said this is unfortunate, because housing development and economic growth are a significant need for the area.
“They are on board with our growth as well, the schools I have been told have capacity,” she said. “We are doing everything that we can to grow the community in the right way, and you know, it’s unfortunate if some people don’t feel that that growth is positive.”
Tenney said at this point, they don’t have the infrastructure to accommodate the housing needs, but with the help of this grant, it will bring them a major step forward in resolving that issue.
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