WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV (WOAY) – Senator Joe Manchin visited the former White Sulphur Springs High School Monday.
It’s now transitioning into becoming the area’s first full-service boutique hotel. Designed and developed by the Disability Opportunity Fund, The Schoolhouse Hotel will particularly cater to the needs of the disabled in low-income families.
In addition, DOF is providing economic opportunities for the whole community.
“Since May of 2019, along Main Street, we redeveloped a full city block, we retained an existing business and attracted eight additional businesses to this area,” President and CEO of DOF, Charlie Hammerman says.
Manchin got to tour many areas of the facility. His walk-through included the lobby, a junior suite, and the restaurant. It concluded in the ballroom where he met the crew who helped build the hotel.
The general theme of Manchin’s closing remarks was about opportunity. Not only did he talk about how this will carry on the legacy of the school building transformation, but it will also help people with a variety of needs.
“I think it speaks to the quality of people we are in West Virginia, the quality of life we think that every citizen should enjoy, and giving them this opportunity to have a quality of life, whatever their challenges,” Senator Manchin says.
The economic potential was also a major theme of the tour. Manchin concluded his remarks with the $6-billion Infrastructure bill that’s coming to the state and what it will do for the future of opportunity in the area.
“You have the federal government working with you, you have the state government, and the state has an awful lot of money that the feds have sent in,” Manchin says.
“So, you have the feds and the state, and then you have your local planning for Greenbrier County, for the White Sulphur area, and what you all are doing is unbelievable, and there’s opportunity there,” he adds.
Manchin then proceeded to take a tour of downtown and the new businesses that have come to Main Street.
After the groundbreaking for the Schoolhouse Hotel took place in January, reservations are now starting to open up for May of this year.
