West Virginia Lottery move delayed

Dec 6, 2010, 12:39 pm (2 comments)

West Virginia Lottery

CHARLESTON, W.V. — It's going to be at least another year before the West Virginia Lottery moves out of leased space in Charleston to a 13-story building it purchased earlier this year on the other side of town.

Lottery Director John Musgrave says a lot of renovation work is required at City Center West and the mandated changes have taken a long time to design and will take a long time to complete.

Musgrave says restrooms in the building will have to be made handicap accessible, a fire suppression system must be installed and elevators changed.

He says the project should go out to bid in about five weeks with construction taking several months to complete. "We may be about this time next year of trying to get into the building. There's just a number of things that have to be done to bring the building that is 27 years old up to the code standards of today," Musgrave said.

The Lottery announced the $21.5 million purchase back in May. Musgrave says it may end up costing more than originally thought to renovate the structure. He says plans are to house the state Alcohol Beverage Control Agency, state Racing Commission and the state Real Estate Division there too.

Musgrave says it looks like the Lottery will be another year in its current home.

The Lottery has rented space in Charleston for 25 years and about 10 years ago decided to begin looking for new space. It initially chose a piece of property to build a new home in Putnam County, but a court challenge from the City of Charleston and Kanawha County Commission kept the agency in the capital city. Other efforts to find existing buildings in recent years came up short until the May announcement.

West Virginia MetroNews

Comments

sully16's avatarsully16

only took them 10 years to find an expensive new building they can't use for another year....Confused

beaudad's avatarbeaudad

They have a new governor

The previous governor replaced the late Robert C Byrd

The previous governor is now a Senator

New things take time and money and patience

End of comments
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