West Side housing project at Charleston Department Store site confirmed

Ogrin did not return a Gazette-Mail call seeking comment Thursday.

Housing Development Fund Communications Administrator Whitney Humphrey said Woda Cooper applied for the credits in May 2022, only seven months after Charleston Department Store held a 100-year anniversary gala. Tom Simons, vice president of Woda Cooper affiliate The Woda Group Inc., did not return an email Wednesday.

“We can confirm that the Charleston Department Store site will be converted into affordable housing units,” Humphrey said. “They have been selected to receive tax credits through the West Virginia Housing Development Fund. There’s not a lot we know about the project. It’s still pretty early.”

Citing a news release from The Woda Group Inc., WCHS-TV reported the project, called Washington Greene, will include 32 two-bedroom units.

Tax credits enable a developer to directly lower development costs, or sell them to someone else who may do the same. Humphrey said the tax credit program is key to affordable housing, enabling developers to offer rents below the market rate.

Three West Side ward representatives on the Charleston City Council and area residents voiced opposition to the proposed project during Tuesday night’s council meeting. Among their concerns were an abundance of public housing already in place on the West Side and the notion that public housing perpetuates a negative perception of that part of town.

“The council members that represent the West Side, the West Side Caucus, were the last to know,” said Ward 5 representative Jeanine Faegre. “There are those within city government who did not know it was going to be sold, that it was going to be torn down and low-income housing erected there on that site, pretty much the whole corner.”

The Charleston Department store building and parking lot morph into a grassy area that extends all the way to 7th Avenue, where just east Woda Cooper is constructing a 43-unit high rise for seniors.

Woda Cooper also plans to develop the Charmco Building on Morris Street, just across from Go-Mart Park, into affordable housing. It paid $600,000 two weeks ago for that property after failing to attract that sum from the city of Charleston’s American Rescue Plan Act funds. City officials say the company is still eligible for the funds.

That project also has its critics. City officials say there are a few procedural hoops to jump through before they can consider the $600,000 award, but two weeks ago Simons said all systems are go and work should be underway by next month.