Mixed-Use Renaissance Village Aims to Attract Teachers to Downtown Welch

Renaissance Village, the four-story mixed-use building that stands as the first new multi-story construction in downtown Welch in more than 50 years, was built to solve a teacher retention crisis. So far, no teachers have moved in.

The $9 million project, completed after more than a decade of planning by Reconnecting McDowell, a private-public partnership formed in 2011, sits at 85 percent occupancy according to WVVA, which covered the building's dedication ceremony. Current tenants include a retired nurse, an ambulance driver, a coal miner, and a Mormon missionary leader. The building's grants manager, Mark Kemp, also lives there.

Gayle Manchin, the former West Virginia first lady who now serves as co-president of the Appalachian Regional Commission, was the driving force behind the project's inception. "One of the biggest issues facing McDowell County schools was the retention of teachers because they did not have affordable housing in this area," Manchin said at the dedication. "So by constructing the Renaissance Village we have now given downtown professional housing for professional people that work in this area."

Manchin launched Reconnecting McDowell in 2011 after persuading American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten to partner on the initiative. What the founders did not anticipate was how long the road to a ribbon-cutting would be: asbestos removal from the old Best's Furniture building on the site took place in May 2016, a demolition ceremony followed on June 9, and construction did not begin until spring 2019. A planned open house celebration was then derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I don't know that we'd have done anything any differently. It just took a lot longer than we had hoped," said Brown, a project leader whose full name was not provided in available reporting.

The apartments are fully outfitted. Kemp described the units as move-in ready: "All of the units come with the utilities, dishwasher, stove, oven, [and] refrigerator. The kitchen [is] ready to roll when you when you come in." One-bedroom units are listed at between $625 and $675 per month depending on the source; two-bedroom units rent for $825. The building sits next to the downtown Welch movie theater.

Reconnecting McDowell has reported between 16 and 20 apartments on the building's upper floors, with figures varying across outlets, and the ground floor was still being leased to commercial tenants at the time of early reporting. A letter of intent had been signed for a coffee shop, sandwich shop, and bookstore combination on the first floor, with the second commercial floor in active negotiations. A coffee shop, a gift store, and a Brazilian restaurant were also described as planned tenants in separate reporting.

Weingarten framed the building's significance in terms that extend beyond housing. "What Reconnecting McDowell shows, what Renaissance Village shows is that you can bridge any ideological differences," she said at the dedication. "You can bridge the kind of hate, the polarization, the division, if you get together over a common set of values and actually work together to help our kids thrive."

Renee Bolden, whose mother moved into the building as one of its first tenants, described the location's appeal plainly. Her mother, a retired nurse who spent most of her life in a remote part of McDowell County, wanted somewhere with no maintenance to manage as she aged. "She's here in the center of everything that pretty much happens in McDowell County," Bolden said.

Kemp, speaking to the building's core purpose, added: "It's really important, we think, ideally, for teachers to live in the communities where they work."

To schedule a showing, call 304-344-2679 or 800-222-9838.