BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – The West Virginia Hive and its parent company, the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, enjoyed the opening of its new office space this morning.
“The Hive’s” new location offers a better workspace with more resources to help grow local and regional economies.
“‘The Hive’ is the entrepreneurship program of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority,” said West Virginia Hive Network Director Judy Moore. “We provide support to entrepreneurs and small business in a 12 county area in Southern West Virginia.”
Business owners in and around Beckley are excited about the possibilities that the opening of “The Hive” could bring.
“The number of entrepreneurs, the would-be entrepreneurs, the entrepreneur want-to-bes that have been trained and coached by ‘The Hive’ is remarkable,” said Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold. “The fruits of that labor are yet to be seen, but there are outstanding businesses already beginning to grow.”
Catalysts for the development of “The Hive” included two USDA grants, as well as a US Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration grant.
“The USDA, actually, they were a cornerstone to this project,” Moore said. “So important. They gave us our first $50,000 grant to actually open these doors to the business hub.”
In addition to the assistance from the USDA, “The Hive” has layered on additional funding requests in order to see a long term vision come to fruition.
