The Waldo Hotel, The Mollohan Hotel and Vandalia

It is refreshing to see the Clarksburg Newspaper take an interest in a story that affects Harrison County, the Vandalia Development Corp and Congressman Mollohan all on the front page of the same newspaper on the same day. I was wondering if this was some anniversary issue where they attempt to relive some perceived glory days of Clarksburg journalism. Now, what are the chances that the Exponent-Telegram will follow up with meaningful analysis?

Here are some ideas with which they can follow-up if their new found impetus for journalism continues. Just a couple of short years ago Vandalia referenced some study they had commissioned with respect to the Waldo Hotel in which they claimed it would cost $12 million to refurbish the hotel. Today's front page article quotes Ms Kuhn's as saying that it will now take $20 million to refurbish the hotel. Has anyone asked her about the source for the new estimate? Has another bid been sought; has someone else provided a professional estimate or engineering analysis? Or, is CEO, Ms Laura Kuhns, making this up as she goes along?

Based on the Wall Street Journal article, The New York Time's article, the Washington Post's article (most of which have been referenced on this blog) and other articles from across the country, Vandalia has received over 90% of its budget from Congressman Mollohan's earmarks. It doesn't have a record of raising money any other way than to have it handed to them from Mollohan. Suddenly, Vandalia Heritage Foundation is looking for "private investors to fund renovations" to the Waldo Hotel. This is code for "we can't do it; but we'll string you along for as long as we can."

I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised for their success. It seems to me, however, that the CEO is posturing Clarksburg for a let down. Let's assume that the ear-marks for Mollohan's 5 non-profits are going to dry up because of the recent bad publicity. That means no ear marks for the Waldo Hotel and no revenue stream for Ms Kuhn. So the price of the renovations is jacked up from $12M to $20M. Now let's make it more difficult and announce that we need private investors to put up the money. Aside from the fact that Vandalia is a private investor itself and it doesn't seem anxious to invest any more, where are these private investors going to come from? They haven't been there before.

Do you think the new Clarksburg City Parking Garage will make the difference? The garage was planned specifically because of promises by Mollohan's representatives to upgrade the hotel. I heard that first hand from the old City Manager in 2001. The City kept its part of the bargain to make Vandalia's an economic success by dedicating resoures and changing the physical character of Pike Street to accomodate the hotel. Get ready for a let down. Sometime after the general election there will be another announcement that no investors had been found, but they are going to keep looking and looking and looking.

Let's cut to the chase and honor our member of congress in the fashion that he so much desires. Rename the Waldo Hotel, "THE MOLLOHAN HOTEL". It will then stay in the forefront of his thoughts.

In the meantime, consider that Laura Kuhns is just the wrong person to get this job done. The person we need is Barbara Mollohan, the wife of our congressman. She has a proven record with real estate in downtown areas. If she can do for "The MOLLOHAN HOTEL" what she did for the "Remington" at Foggy Bottom in Washington, DC. , then Pike Street has a bright future ahead of it.

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