City officials from Charleston and Huntington will travel to Durham, North Carolina, this week in hopes of advancing at the America's Best Communities summit.
In January, Charleston representatives announced the city was selected as one of 15 towns and cities from across the U.S. as a semifinalist in the competition, which is sponsored by Frontier, DISH Network, CoBank and The Weather Channel.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, city officials will present their redevelopment proposals to a panel of economic revitalization experts before the top eight finalists are announced Wednesday evening.
The city has come a long way since it made the America's Best Community quarter-finalist round in April 2015, when it was awarded a $50,000 grant to help draft the revitalization plan that will play a major role in whether it advances to the next round.
Charleston officials used that money to fund a retail study and merchandise mix strategy for downtown; to fund a Wi-Fi assessment that outlined costs and options for installing a downtown wireless network; and conducted a pedestrian study for downtown and began planning for the Charleston EDGE Project, a proposed housing complex at Donnally and Capitol streets meant to attract young professionals to the central business district.
Eight communities will advance to the competition's next round, with another year to begin to carry out the cornerstones of their respective renewal plans.
In April 2017, a panel of judges will again review each of those eight communities, and determine which made the biggest impact and is likely to foster sustained revitalization, said John Puskar, Frontier communications vice president for the America's Best Communities campaign.
The top community will receive $3 million, with $2 million going to the second-place finisher and $1 million going to the third-place community.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051, or follow @elainasauber on Twitter.