Barboursville Mayor looks to future business growth and economic prospects amid holiday shopping and pending new year

POSTED BY KATHERINESKELDON   WCHS 104.5 FM   ON DECEMBER 18, 2023

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — The Mayor of Barboursville is looking forward to a busy holiday shopping season and a new year of further growth in the city as several new businesses and economic developments get underway.

Mayor Chris Tatum said on The Dave Allen Show Monday the city’s revenue has seen a record-breaking year following the new developments. He said a major one still in the works, though, is the announcement of Dave & Buster’s to come to the Huntington Mall.

Tatum said although the popular arcade and entertainment establishment hasn’t made its way to the area yet, he feels its pending arrival alone will attract more holiday shoppers to the mall this year as the excitement builds for the first Dave & Buster’s to come to the state.

However, he said Dave & Buster’s only scratches the surface of all of the developing prospects coming to Barboursville and the entire state for the year ahead.

“There’s so many good things going on here, in Charleston, in the valley and what not,” Tatum said. “It’s such an exciting time and if people aren’t excited then they aren’t looking for anything to be excited about.”

He said as the city has already been voted one of the top retail and shopping destinations in the state by many national publications, this is only more motivation for them to work toward continued growth.

Tatum said every year he and other city representatives attend the International Association of Shopping Centers conference for a chance to network and develop relationships with potential business prospects to come to Barboursville, as he said the event brings in any entity you can imagine would be in a mall or retail center, all looking for more places to establish their businesses within.

He said it’s important to reach out to these retail and business representatives attending the conference in hopes of influencing them to establish roots in the area, even it’s one which seems like too big of a stretch for West Virginia to accommodate, because, he said taking the chance to get them here could always pay off.

“We do talk to folks like that, we have talked to them, we’ve talked to Topgolf, I mean I know that’s kind of high in the sky but I thought Dave and Busters six years ago was high in the sky,” he said.

Tatum said Barboursville has the largest shopping complex in the state, and the more and more businesses that establish in the area, the more others will follow.

“It makes people start looking at it, you point out the good, you point out kind of the numbers of where people are coming from to do their shopping, they start taking notice, and that’s how its all happened with Dave and Busters,” said Tatum.

Another new prospect which has come to the Huntington Mall, the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers, Tatum said will not only bring in economic development opportunities but educational opportunities to the area, as well.

“We’re happy to have that in our city, too, lots of learning opportunities, and lots of expanded learning opportunities for students here in Cabell County,” he said.

He said in addition, every county in the region will soon be benefitting from the impact of Nucor Steele currently being developed in Apple Grove in Mason County. The $3.1 billion steel mill is expected to bring in 800 new manufacturing jobs to the area.

Tatum said you can look at the growth going on throughout the entire state, and he said he is happy Barboursville can be a part of that.

“Doom and gloom I guess has been everyone’s mantra for a while now, or it seems that way, it always seems like the negative is pointed out, but man, we have so many positive things going on here and in the state, as well,” said Tatum.

He said the city expects to welcome Dave and Busters to the area for an official grand opening sometime in the spring or summer of 2024.