City of Beckley set to acquire historic WJLS building

BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Local businessman, Matt Bickey, is offering the historic WJLS building to the City of Beckley as a non-profit entity.

The city will be in charge of placing a new roof around $120,000 onto the building in return.

If the city does acquire the building, one potential plan is to rent out the vacant retail spaces the building houses.

“We feel like this will give the city a chance to engage in a public-private partnership of some sort if an entrepreneur is interested in either starting or expanding their business in either of those storefronts, we would like to entertain the idea of working with that individual, to see if the city could initially be an equity partner in it,” says Mayor of Beckley, Rob Rappold.

The offer is still not a done deal–the city council still has to approve the offer at the following council meetings in the coming weeks ahead.

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