HUNTINGTON ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” Nearly five years after a landmark ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œskyscraperÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ in downtown Huntington was sold in a public auction, the Coal Exchange Building is now seeking bids from architectural firms familiar with historical office building conversions to a hotel.
According to a public notice published on page 8B in FridayÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s edition of The Herald-Dispatch, federal funds are involved and ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œcompliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations is required.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
The Coal Exchange Building is pictured here in this July 15, 2019, file photo in downtown Huntington.
Ryan Fischer | HD ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
The public notice lists Andy Fox, project manager with Columbus, Ohio-based Striv Designs, as the person for potential bidders to contact for the scope of work and bid requirements. Striv Designs is a hospitality design services company, according to its .
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe public notice is part of a grant award process with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for planning the historic restorations and renovations to the building,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Fox said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Fox said the company is in the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œvery early stagesÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ in developing a plan for the building.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s going to take at least a couple of years probably before we even start construction, so I donÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t have a start date or an estimate completion date,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ he said. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œRight now, we have just started the early stages of planning.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
The Coal Exchange Building at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 11th Street sold for $500,000 during the auction in 2019 in the lobby on the ground floor of the historic building.
Joe Pyle, owner of Joe R. Pyle Complete Auction & Realty Co., auctioned the 14-story, 140,000-square-foot building in combination with the smaller building attached next door that has an additional 10,000 square feet of space.
The winning bidder was Whirlwind Properties LLC, a Huntington real estate investment firm. However, after the auction was over, the company yielded the sale to Francis McGuire with McGuire Realty, who was representing the buyer.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe buyer is Jay Barta, who owns many different companies,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ McGuire said after the auction in 2019. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œHe is also the owner of the Double Tree by Hilton Huntington.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
McGuire said he did not have information about the future use of the building and only represented Barta with the purchase. An email seeking comment from Barta was not immediately returned.
After the auction, Pyle said the buildingsÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ $500,000 sale price was the approximate market value for the properties.
Pyle said the previous owners of the building, Mouwafak and Hanan Ghannam, were retiring from the property owning and managing business and decided that a public auction was the quickest way to close on a sale.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe buildings have great bones, but need renovated on the inside,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Pyle said in 2019. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWith the location downtown, close to Pullman Square and Marshall University, this is a great deal. You can have retail space on the ground level and office or residential space on the upper floors.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
The Coal Exchange Building has a grand entrance with three elevators, marble floors and walls in its main lobby, more than 5,500 square feet of space on each level, 28 bathrooms, as well as a new boiler system, transformer, electrical work and a rubber roof.
While the Coal Exchange Building is not on the National Register of Historic Places, the highrise is considered historic by locals. The building is the cityÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s third tallest at 160 feet.
The buildingÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s tall concrete-and-steel centerpiece began life in the mid-1920s, according to Jim Casto, retired associate editor for The Herald-Dispatch, who has written about the buildingÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s history.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œElaborately designed, with marble floors and walls in its lobby, it boasted offices that were larger and finer than any others in the city at that time,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Casto wrote. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œNot surprisingly, the building rapidly filled with tenants ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” doctors, lawyers and, of course, coal companies.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
The Coal Exchange Bank occupied the ground floor, but the Great Depression resulted in its closure and forced bankruptcy on the buildingÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s owners, too. The property ended up being sold at auction at the Cabell County Courthouse in about 1933, and it is thought that thatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s when it was chosen by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway for its engineering department and other offices.
Later, Kaiser Drug Store occupied the ground floor, and most recently it was home to GlennÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s Sporting Goods before it moved to 1040 3rd Ave. It also at one time housed many other companies, including Knuckle Sandwich, Kindred Communications radio, the Herd Insider, Greater Huntington Theater Corp., Jenkins Fenstermaker law firm and the Marshall University Research Corp., among others.
Fred Pace is the business reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. Follow him at and via X (formerly Twitter) @FredPaceHD.
