Fairmont Box Factory's end of life marred by dispute over value

Nov. 15—FAIRMONT — Whenever there's a football game at East-West Stadium, cheers erupt out of the Fairmont Box Factory.

The announcer's ghostly echo narrates whatever fortune Fairmont Senior High finds on the field that night. There is an ethereal feel to walking by the structure at night on the way to the game, as if the ghosts from the factory's history as a glass maker, box factory or other incarnations have bet their own wagers on the teams.

However, that's impossible.

The building is abandoned, broken windows and crumbling brick spelling out its disrepair. Maybe it's because of the broken glass, hollow spaces or flat surfaces, but for whatever acoustic reason defined by laws of physics, the building almost perfectly reflects the soundscape coming out of the stadium on game night.

Despite its long history in the city of Fairmont, the rotting hulk's time spectating youth football games is coming to a close. The City is moving forward with its plans to redevelop the property as part of its Beltline District Redevelopment Project. Although its fate might be sealed, one thing has yet to be determined. What value the property has. Disagreement over that has led the City to begin eminent domain procedures against Naternicola Masonry, the building's current and perhaps, final owner.

In 2022, Fairmont City Planner Shae Strait said the city initially approached Naternicola Masonry about purchasing the property.

"We were unsuccessful," Strait said. "We had pretty wildly different understandings of what the value of the property was. Our ballpark original offer was around $200,000 or less. It wasn't a whole lot of money, the building's in pretty bad shape. But we wanted to offer something that seemed fair. I think the counteroffer we got verbally from Natericola Masonry was a million dollars."

The Box Factory was initially spread out over two entire city blocks. From West Fairmont Middle School, the East-West Stadium, everything east of that toward the Monongahela River was the glass factory. Republic Services, the public works garage, the Marion County Board of Education maintenance building all sit on the land that used to be part of the sprawling complex. Monongah Glass initially operated in the building, commencing operations in 1904. For a few decades, the company dominated glassmaking in the entire U.S. However, in 1928 they were bought out by the Hocking Glass Company and in 1933 the plant closed production.

In a pattern that then repeated throughout its history, the building was sold for unpaid property taxes. For most of its life it made boxes, which is where its popular moniker as a box factory comes from. Its sections were dismantled and demolished, until the only remaining building is the one that most people know today.

Kirk Naternicola, owner of Naternicola Masonry, bought the Box Factory in 2011. According to city records, he purchased the building for $2,500. Naternicola declined to comment for this story, saying he was looking at an attorney due to the city's impending action.

Strait said the building's state of disrepair isn't the fault of the current owner, it was already falling apart when Naternicola bought it. Naternicola told The Times West Virginian in 2017 that he cleaned the inside of trash, debris and broken glass. He also tried to change the zoning laws around the property from mixed use to industrial.

"This limits usage to apartments, small shops and restaurants. None of these things would be successful in my current location," Naternicola was quoted in the article. He argued that the zoning limited what types of businesses could be successful in his location. The building isn't downtown or near any major foot traffic. It sits next to another industrial site and a bus garage.

The request failed to pass muster at the city planning commission. At a City Council meeting in October this year, he said his company used the building for storage.

After a few different attempts to settle on a purchase price, Strait said the last best offer the city had was for a land swap. Although the deal initially seemed to interest Naternicola, he backed out, saying there were no properties that the city owned that were of interest to his company. By now, the city had spent over a year trying to purchase the land.

To proceed with eminent domain, the city needed to hire a licensed commercial property appraiser to evaluate the land. The land appraisal came in $30,000-$40,000 lower than the City's initial offer. Before the court can transfer ownership from a private entity to the municipal government, the City needs to conduct its due diligence, which Strait said in this case, it has. Although the owner can dispute the amount of compensation they receive in exchange for the land, ownership transfers first, with the details of compensation being settled afterward.

"Even in an eminent domain, the citizens have rights," Strait said. "They have things that have to be respected under the law, and it's good that somebody has legal advice and makes sure that the due process is carried out and that they are taken care of in a situation like this."

Although House of Delegates Member Mike DeVault doesn't like eminent domain, he said this could be a textbook case of it, as long as the City has all of its legal ducks in a row. The practice exists specifically for cases where the government needs land to meet a public good. Strait argues that this would be one such case, removing a property that has become too dangerous to let stand.

DeVault is not affiliated with the City's plans in any way. As an outside onlooker with experience in related matters, he did sound a note of caution.

"My biggest concern is if they are going to take it through eminent domain, make sure you don't buy something and then you figure out wow, we don't have the money to tear it down," he said. "And it sits in the exact same shape it is now."

Demolition costs can vary depending on the age of the building and construction practices.

The Box Factory isn't the only location that the City is obtaining for the Beltline project. After the City purchased property from CSX Corp., the rail freight company, Strait said many owners started approaching the city to offload their own land for the city's redevelopment projects. Two particular standouts were residents Judd and Bobbie Doerfler, who worked with the city in a similar property purchase.

"We did all the same work with all these other property owners that we did with Naternicola Masonry, too," Strait said. "It's just that unfortunately with Naternicola Masonry, we weren't able to come to any amiable agreement to the sale."

DeVault said that getting rid of the building might be the best use of the property. He was recently blown away by a presentation on the importance of tourism, and sees many opportunities for the state to leverage its natural beauty to bring hikers and outdoor enthusiasts here. The rail trail system that is planned to go through where the Box Factory currently sits could help bring that tourism revenue to Fairmont.

The Box Factory is the keystone to the city's Beltline plans. Strait said that if there was an option to work around the factory and not invoke eminent domain, the city would take it. But its presence could be a potential spoiler to any future plans to put in a park next to it.

"If you were to ask people to go send their kids to a park or a rail trail and you had this 160,000 square foot derelict building next to it, unsecured, I don't think anybody would use the park," Strait said. "I don't think anybody would use the trail."

Addressing the danger while also improving the quality of the neighborhoods and increasing the land value is the impetus behind the choice to pursue eminent domain, Strait said.

It's thinking that echo's DeVault's. Although the building is a part of history, it's not historic. Glass factories were common in the building's heyday. Remodeling it for habitation or commercial use is prohibitively expensive and there isn't enough economic traffic here to justify it. Similar factories up and down the West Fork River have already been torn down.

"Whatever history was there is gone," DeVault said. "But to look at its history, you have to take it from then and say, 'here's where we're gonna go with it in the future.' For it to languish there as a derelict building, I'm not for that personally."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com