Connect Bridgeport
By Jeff Toquinto on January 21, 2018
Earth work of roughly $12 million could begin once warmer weather arrives for the next big phase of development at Charles Point, an official with Genesis Partners confirmed.
Recently, a request for proposal was sent out for a company to handle the necessary earthwork for the proposed $10 million Charles Pointe Crossing that will be anchored by Menard’s. Director of Planning/Engineering Rob Stuart of Genesis Partners, the group overseeing the development of Charles Pointe, said 20 firms showed interested in the work and nine bid on it.
“We were more than pleased with the initial response and the number of bidders,” said Stuart.
He said work is being finalized with the apparent low bidder. The bid has already been certified by the engineer for the project – Civil & Environmental Consultants. And by no means is this a small job.
“The bid involved 3.8 million yards of material,” said Stuart. “It’s a big contract and the first of two.”
The second bid will be put out later, he said. It involves roadwork and infrastructure and should be coming in the near future.
“It’s the undeveloped near exit 124 (Jerry Dove Drive north). It involves about a 100 acre disturbance and we’ll net, give or take, 67 developable acres,” said Stuart. “The area will all front the interstate along the northbound lane prior to the exit ramp, but it will be highly visible to both the southbound and northbound lanes of traffic.”
The bulk of the work will be clearly visible. The main entrance will be in the area where the steep hillside currently sits opposite the main entrance to Charles Pointe – Genesis Boulevard. Once complete, it will be a four-way intersection as opposed to a three way.
News on the earthwork is the first major news since word broke of the impending arrival of the first-ever Menards to come into West Virginia. It was announced at the March 15 meeting of the Bridgeport Planning Commission when the company’s economic development incentive request grant to the agency was considered and approved.
Menards is a chain of home improvement businesses with locations featured primarily in the Midwestern United States. The privately held company has its home operations in Wisconsin with roughly 300 stores in 14 states.
The company has multiple sections including appliances, bath, doors, electrical, heating and cooling, kitchen, outdoors, paint, tools, hardware and more. Of particular interest may be that Menards actually has a very small grocery store component to it as well that should meet a few of demands of some asking for a type of grocery configuration to be present on that end of Bridgeport.
At the March 15 meeting, Spellman said Menards will occupy 202,000 square feet of retail space at the future Charles Pointe Crossing. Stuart said once everything is complete there should be roughly 650,000 square feet of space available for other stores to locate around the anchor store in Menards.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest from others looking to locate there. Obviously, our sales team is out there working and peddling the location and we’re entertaining every opportunity,” said Stuart. “This is an anchor store that usually draws plenty of stores around it.”
A real estate representative with Menards, Rodney Wekkin, said last year all things were a go, but didn’t know exactly when they would start. A lot depended on the infrastructure work, which is set to begin.
“I would expect (Menards) to being their construction within a year of us starting so you’ll probably see work begin in early 2019,”said Stuart.
