Fate of West Side landmark in doubt
By Jim Balow
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Call it the ultimate fixer-upper: 47,000 square feet, more or less, on four floors — not counting the morgue in the basement.
That’s the former Staats Hospital, the plum of the Elk City Historic District.
Larry Kopelman and his Genesis Capital partner, Charles F. Schoen, probably would give you a good deal on the building. They hold a deed of trust on the property, which is tied up in bankruptcy court after the previous owner, Dr. Adla Adi of St. Francis West Properties, defaulted on his loan from Genesis, Kopelman said.
There’s a catch, though — probably several of them.
“It’s an old building that needs complete remodeling,” Kopelman said. “You’ve got old-building issues. Heating and cooling needs to be totally replaced.”
Not to mention the leaky roof, the asbestos and lead paint, the broken elevators, shattered plaster, pigeon poop and the trash — mountains of trash.
Kevin Mullins gave some visitors a first-hand look on a recent guided tour. A computer network engineer by day and vocalist for the Esquires band by night, Mullins has been helping fellow band member Kopelman clean up the property and show it to potential developers.
Although the brick exterior of the Staats building has held up over the years, the interior is a different story. The place hasn’t changed much since Adi closed his office doors and moved to Florida, more than a year ago.
“He only used the first floor,” Mullins said. “The second, third and fourth floors haven’t been used since the 1970s.
“The basement isn’t really usable. That’s where the old autopsy room is.” The operating table is still there, he said.
Built in 1922 by the Staats brothers, the structure once was the commercial heart of the Elk City neighborhood on West Washington Street, just across the Elk River. It housed the 625-seat Grand Theater, the first movie venue on the West Side, plus an A&P grocery store and Kelley’s Department Store.
Historians say it was designed by John Norman, one of West Virginia’s first black licensed architects.
Staats Hospital occupied the second and third floors as late as 1982, according to one newspaper account, while the fourth floor was home to the Glendale Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
Saint Francis Hospital bought the property, then sold it to Adi, who operated the Saint Francis West HealthCare clinic.
By all appearances, Adi focused his energy on operating the first-floor clinic, and used the upper floors as a repository for unwanted or unneeded materials. In 2003, he announced plans to tear the building down and build a new clinic in the rear. He never followed through.
The first floor is in relatively good condition, but the rest of building has deteriorated badly over the years. Bits of broken plaster, flakes of paint, old furniture, office supplies and random scraps of paper cover the floor in the maze of rooms on the second and third floors.
On the fourth floor, Mullins warned to steer clear of one room dotted with pigeon droppings, and to avoid the hole where rain from the leaking roof has rotted through the wooden floor.
He entered what once was the building’s showpiece, the lodge hall — except most of the vaulted ceiling has fallen, exposing the joists above. “You can still see the lodge insignia here, and here,” he said, pointing at the two end walls. “I think this was the original Knights of Pythias lodge hall.”
Lately, though, it’s been a garbage dump. “This was waist deep in trash,” he said.
Mullins has spent months cleaning up, trying to make the place more attractive for developers.
Kopelman hopes to get back at least some of the money he loaned Adi. Ownership is still tied up in bankruptcy court, he said.
“Genesis Capital has not decided what to do,” Kopelman said, but he and his partner don’t want to own the building. “We’ve got some effort in place in trying to find someone.”
That’s where Pat McGill comes in. As director of the West Side Main Street program, she’s been trying to save the building since 2010, when she heard Adi was planning to retire.
With Kopelman’s blessing, she’s been hunting for grant money and, in December, learned she’d won a $5,000 brownfields grant.
The Staats building was one of eight projects, and the first ever from Kanawha County, to win a grant through the FOCUS WV Program at the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center in Morgantown. A second center, at Marshall University, serves Southern West Virginia.
Under federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, the building qualifies as a brownfield because of its suspected asbestos and lead paint problems.
“We hope to do a Phase I assessment, a feasibility study to find out what could the property potentially be used for,” McGill said. “We’ve not had a lot of success finding a developer because of the unknowns for the environmental issues.
“The second step would be to apply for a $20,000 [State Historic Preservation Office] grant. You can use the money to hire consultants to look at potential uses or hire architects or engineers.”
The EPA definition of a brownfield is kind of broad, said Luke Elsor, project manager at the Morgantown center: “Any real property that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated.”
That includes land, like old gas stations and apple orchards where pesticides were used. “They specifically included post surface-mining properties, which is important for West Virginia.” It includes structures, all sorts of factories and chemical plants, and any building where lead paint, asbestos floor tiles and/or asbestos insulation might have been used.
“That perception opens up a lot,” Elsor said. “A site is not going to be redeveloped because there’s a feeling it’s contaminated.” Developers shy away because of the uncertainty, he said.
“For all we know, the Staats Hospital is perfectly safe and clean, or it may be easily addressed.”
The project also would qualify for a $12,000 Stage II site design and project implementation grant, he said.
“The goal is market research. That can take the form of architectural studies, market analysis or site planning — trying to find the different pieces to the puzzle,” Elsor said. “Typically, a brownfield redevelopment project can take up to 14 investment partners.
“Nobody wants to see a space sitting empty. It’s a great opportunity to get a lot of people involved.”
Kopelman is ready to step in. “I hope that grant will create a concept for what to do with the building,” he said. “We would, if a group came forward, would finance. That’s what we do.
“We’re looking for anyone, either West Side Main Street as a conduit or a catalyst, or an independent third party. We’re willing to cooperate.”
Reach Jim Balow at ba…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102.
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