Distribution Center

The West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council approved a $2 million loan Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to land a company that could bring more than 2,500 jobs to Berkeley County. The loan from IJDC to the West Virginia Economic Development Authority would allow the state to purchase property and reimburse some site-work costs at a proposed location for the unnamed company in Tabler Station Business Park, according to Berkeley County Development Authority Executive Director Stephen Christian.

“I'm finally beginning to see what's the problem with this area. We're too urban for chickens, but we're too rural for recycling. What a dilemma.” - Hagerstown “You know, I get tired of these people complaining about the schoolteachers and these children going to school, and we went to Grandparents Day, (for) our grandson, and I'm amazed at how nice and how hard these teachers work and how the students were. If you think their job is so easy, just go to school and walk in their shoes for a day or so. You'll see how easy it is. So I compliment them.

Berkeley County is among fewer than five areas attempting to land a company that could bring 2,500 to 3,000 jobs to the community, Berkeley County Development Authority Executive Director Stephen Christian said Monday. “I think we will have a definite answer by October, possibly sooner,” said Christian, who declined to reveal the name of the company. While no deal has been struck, sketch plans proposing the construction of more than 2 million square feet of industrial building space at Tabler Station Business Park south of Martinsburg were advanced Monday by the Berkeley County Planning Commission.

Hurricane Irene is expected to bring 1 to 2 inches of rain and winds gusting up to 35 mph when it hits the Tri-State region this weekend, the National Weather Service said Friday. NWS meteorologist Carrie Suffern said Friday morning that Tri-State area residents can expect winds to pick up Saturday evening. She said the brunt of the storm won't hit until Sunday morning. Suffern said Irene is moving to the north and northeast, meaning the eye of the storm should stay offshore as it passes through the Mid-Atlantic.  As of 11:30 a.m. Friday, Washington County, Md., Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania and Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties in West Virginia were not included in watch or warning areas related to the approaching storm, according to the weather service.

After sharing details of their counties' economic successes Wednesday, officials from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia listened to a description of "Project Olympus. " That was the code name for the $150 million, 1.3-million-square-foot Macy's distribution center that will be built in Cumbo Yard Industrial Park off W.Va. 9 in Berkeley County, W.Va. The center, which will serve Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com, is expected to bring about 1,200 full-time jobs and another 700 jobs during peak periods.

Taira Fowler of Williamsport received a scholarship from Dot Foods. The scholarship is for $500 per semester (or $1,000 per year) and is renewable based on full-time status and grade-point requirements. She is the daughter of an employee at the Dot Foods’ Williamsport distribution center. Fowler will attend Spellman College in Atlanta in the fall and major in engineering. She is a June graduate of North Hagerstown High School. She was one of four children of Dot Foods employees to receive a scholarship.

Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and a host of community leaders are expected to join Macy's executives for an April 15 groundbreaking ceremony for the retail giant's sprawling Internet-service center in Berkeley County, officials announced Thursday. Macy's plans to build a 1,399,375-square-foot distribution center complete with parking on about 92 acres in Cumbo Yard Industrial Park. The county approved the project last month. All of the earth work is expected to be completed within two to three months, and Macy's expects to have the building substantially under roof by October as part of a "very aggressive" construction schedule, Berkeley County Development Authority Executive Director Stephen Christian said Thursday.

GBC, a commercial lamination company, is expanding its presence in the Hagerstown area, according to  Timothy R. Troxell, executive director of the Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission. The company, which already had a plant on Western Maryland Parkway, recently signed a lease for 40,000 square feet of space at 16038 Business Parkway in the Huyetts Business Park. "My understanding is they had a distribution center, I believe, in Delaware, and the transport costs were just starting to get kind of ridiculous," Troxell said.

The Macy's distribution center planned near Martinsburg, W.Va., will have an impact well beyond state lines, a Franklin County, Pa., economic development leader said last week. "This is good for our valley, and we're developing a regional economy," said L. Michael Ross, president of the Franklin County Area Development Corp. "We all benefit from a project like this. " Although the center could strain other employers looking for warehouse workers, it'll create a need for things such as construction, janitorial services and office supplies from across the region, Ross said.

Project Olympus appears to be a fitting code name for the $150 million investment that Macy's announced last week it will make in Berkeley County. Describing the project last week as a "game changer," Stephen Christian, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority, said the project could singlehandedly pull Berkeley County out of recession. "It's not just the 1,200 new jobs. Everything from local retail sales, all the way up to the housing market should see the benefit of this project," Christian said in formally announcing that Macy's search for land to build a 1.3-million-square-foot distribution center had ended near Martinsburg.