TimHudson has been approached about selling his home, at 150 Preferred Place, along Corridor G, many times.
He had a couple knock on his door, pretending to be on a walk through the neighborhood, and ask about his house before getting into a Sheetz van. He had representatives from 7-Eleven stop by to inquire. A couple of years ago, he was ready to sell, before a developer's project fell through.
But now, the time has come. Hudson recently signed an agreement to sell his property to Interstate Realty, a Bristol, Tennessee-based commercial real estate company that has opened, or is opening, shopping centers in several other cities.
Hudson's property is valuable to developers because of its proximity to Corridor G. You can hear the cars whizzing by while standing on his front porch.
“It's the only flat land left around here,” Hudson said.
On the other side of Corridor G is the Southridge Centre shopping complex, anchored by Wal-Mart. A little south of him is the Dudley Farms Plaza, with Kohl's, OfficeMax and Books-A-Million.
Interstate Realty has started buying other houses in the area where Hudson lives. According to Mike Nidiffer, co-owner of Interstate, the developer has agreements with all the property owners in the neighborhood, spanning from Preferred Place to Mitchell Lane and stretching back to Rutledge Road.
Once Interstate obtains the land, it hopes to put in a shopping center, Nidiffer said. He said it's too early to tell what businesses might come to the area if his company's development is successful, but said he has had several companies express interest.
Interstate's development in Bristol, Virginia, includes a Cabela's and a Lowe's. The developer is building a project in Barboursville, and it plans to open a shopping center near the University Town Center, in Morgantown.
The nearby India Center, along with Green Road, have been considered in past development projects. Kiran Sanghavi, who is in charge of operations management at the India Center, said the center has not been approached by Interstate Realty.
This isn't the first time a developer has tried to build across the highway from Southridge Centre
In 2014, TSG Properties, also known as The Staenberg Group, reached out to property owners about buying their houses.
That project fell through, at least in part, because the West Virginia Department of Transportation objected to TSG's plans to turn the three-way Corridor G intersection in front of Wal-Mart into a four-way intersection.
DOT officials said they wanted more information than the developer's preliminary report supplied.
“One of the reasons that we didn't like what we saw was due to the existing traffic at the intersection,” said DOT spokeswoman Carrie Jones. She said the DOT might have problems if Interstate plans a similar project.
“We need to get a plan that shows they're going to make it work,” she said.
Interstate has not provided a report to the DOT for its prospective project.
“We're just not that far along right now, we just put everything together,” Nidiffer said. “We are aware of the problems that the last developer had.”
Hudson hasn't decided where he'll move if the deal goes through — maybe Charleston or Florida. But even through he agreed to sell his house, and said he got a good deal, he wouldn't be too upset if the deal falls through. He's made repairs and landscaped around his house over the past few years.
“You still have to live your life,” he said.
That's his personal view, but he said he hopes the deal goes through for the sake of the state.
“We need all the economic development we can get,” he said.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.