THE INTERMOUNTAIN, ELKINS, WV — The Randolph County Development Authority has approved the final design plan for the planned multi-million-dollar event and conference center. The 28,000-square-feet, $11.6 million structure will be constructed in proximity to the Elkins Railyard Depot, behind the current Rotary Amphitheater.
“We are still working on the facade of the building, trying to figure out the right combination of brick, stone and wood,” RCDA Director Robbie Morris told The Inter-Mountain. “But the floor plan, the site plan, and all of those aspects of the design have been approved.” Morris said the project will now move into the design development phase where documents are created and the bidding process for the construction of the facility begins.
“Approving the design plan was a significant step in the project,” Morris said. “It has taken a little longer than we had anticipated to get to this point, but we wanted to make sure we got it right and utilize every dollar that we have to its fullest extent. “We’ve tried to have as much input from various stakeholders in he project as we could, so we feel that we are in a good place and we will move on to the next step.”
Morris said the schedule for the project’s completion hasn’t changed much over the past several months. “We are looking at bidding this in the first quarter of 2024,” Morris said. “We plan on starting construction in the second quarter of 2024 and completion probably in the second or third quarter of 2025.”
The Thrasher Group is the architecture and engineering firm overseeing the project. Morris added that after the facility and the parking area is constructed, there will be close to two-and-half to three acres of remaining development space in proximity to the center. “There will be enough room there for another large project, a couple medium-sized projects, or several small projects,” Morris said of the remaining space. “But we want to make sure we get this thing off the ground and running first. Then hopefully some other private investment will follow. We may be able to spur some of that development ourselves, but we just don’t want to bite off more than we can chew right now.”
In August 2022, the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded a $5.4 million grant to the RCDA to support construction of the event center. The grant was funded by the American Rescue Plan.