Fairmont Announces $4 Million Recreation Facility to be Built on Location of Former Fairmont Box Factory

The City of Fairmont is excited to unveil the redevelopment plans for the site of the former Fairmont Box Factory: Momentum Adventure Park (MAP). This space will serve as the new major trailhead and access point to the West Fork River Trail Extension, which will be included in the buildout. The City hopes to have this project out to bid this year, with a ribbon-cutting and grand opening in the latter half of 2026.

This $4 million development will feature approximately two miles of new trail, a park facility including a skate park, bouldering wall, pump track, and skill courses. Not included in that price tag is a public-private partnership to redevelop the former machine shop next to the former box factory property, which will offer services to complement the park space. Additional announcements regarding that partnership are still in development and will be announced at a later date.

“I hope that the citizens who were engaged in those early planning sessions will see their comments and their passions reflected and realized in this project,” Mayor Anne Bolyard said. “I hope that this development will help the community see what’s possible in Fairmont, and as they see this project completed, they dream bigger and bring us more recommendations.”

This project stems from years of studies, most recently the Beltline Redevelopment Plan, which the City published in 2023. In 2024, the City continued that vision and collected public comments to be used in the plans for the recreational developments in the neighborhood. Several highly requested amenities from those sessions were the skate park and pump track.

The City has a two-step process to ensure that the site is free and clear of any contaminants due to the past uses of the property. First, the City completed several environmental assessments that show what contaminants, if any, are in the ground, and second, the City developed a cleanup action plan. That action plan has been outlined in such a way that the completion of this park project willsatisfy all the remediation requirements.

In addition to these efforts, the environmental assessments came back much cleaner than expected, given the site’s manufacturing history

“That’s likely due to the short history of glass manufacturing that happened at this site, which only lasted between 10 and 20 years. Compare that to sites where heavy manufacturing happened for half a century, this site is much cleaner,” Planning & Development Director Shae Strait said. “Either way, we’re working with consultants and engineers every step of the way through this project to ensure we meet that gold standard of environmental remediation.”

This project falls in line with the City’s commitment to focus strategic investments in sections of our city that have experienced generational disinvestment. Those specific target areas are the Norwood neighborhood, Jackson Addition & Downtown and the Beltline neighborhood.

Following the successful opening of Norwood Park in August and the major improvements to Windmill Park, this investment in the Beltline Neighborhood rounds out the first round of these key investments. Future investments in these targeted areas are the completion of the remaining Rail Trail gap into downtown and East Side, continued investments in Windmill Park, traffic pattern improvements to the main thoroughfares in the Beltline Neighborhood, the redevelopment of the former Helmick property and updates to the City’s other municipal parks.

For the completion of MAP, the majority of the $4 million will come from the City’s Tax Increment Finance District, with support from additional grant partnerships contributing as well. Momentum Adventure Park and the extension of the West Fork River Trail will be the single largest investment yet along the Pittsburgh-to-Parkersburg (P2P) Trail Corridor and will be the first build-out of new trail along this route in West Virginia. And on a more local level, this will be the largest single recreational development the City of Fairmont has undertaken.

“Developments like this are transitional investments and they’re what our residents have been crying out for, for years,” City Manager Travis Blosser said. “We’re committed to delivering our residents the amenities and services they deserve. Norwood Park was one step in the right direction; now this project is a leap into Fairmont’s future.”

A public input session on the designs will be held Oct. 8th from 5-7pm in room 106 in the Turley Center on Fairmont State University’s campus. More information will be posted to the City of Fairmont’s social media.

Editor’s Note: Architectural renderings courtesy of the City of Fairmont.

Source link