{"id":825,"date":"2025-10-22T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zmm.com\/news\/?p=825"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:12:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:12:06","slug":"south-charleston-welcomes-a-flurry-of-new-businesses-city-leaders-speak-on-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zmm.com\/news\/south-charleston-welcomes-a-flurry-of-new-businesses-city-leaders-speak-on-success","title":{"rendered":"South Charleston welcomes a flurry of new businesses, city leaders speak on success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are honored to partner with Mayor Mullens and the City of South Charleston on the design of the new health and wellness facility. More about the growth in South Charleston, including information on the facility project, is included below in the WOWK<\/a> article. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Blake DeJarnatt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-time Mayor of South Charleston Frank Mullens said that to build a thriving city, there are a few things that need to be done. First, you have to be open-minded and welcome to major changes. He exemplified this early on in his mayoral career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember when I took office, the first thing I did was strip downtown. We stripped down the trees. We took the landscape away. We took the crosswalks away. We rebuilt it, and we made it a little more business-friendly. We made it so you could see the business\u2019s signs. When I first did it, some people were like, \u2018I can\u2019t believe you did that,\u2019 but wait a minute, let\u2019s see how it plays out. Change is hard for some folks, but you\u2019ve got to do it,\u201d Mullens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversifying a town\u2019s economy is also one of his major goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiversity is a big thing. We learned our lesson. At one time, South Charleston was the chemical city of the world, and that was great. But, we learned our lesson. You can\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket. You have to be a diverse economy. In that way, if something doesn\u2019t work out well, it doesn\u2019t crush you. You can survive because you\u2019re diverse, you have other things to fall back on,\u201d Mullens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, cities have to be able to support small businesses. Both Ream and Mayor Mullens cited this as one of the reasons for the recent boom of business in the city. The way they\u2019ve accomplished that is by implementing a graduating scale tax system that allows small businesses to lay a solid foundation before paying full taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a tax credit on our books that allows new and expanding businesses to use. Basically what it is, it\u2019s a 0 to 100% graduating scale. So you start out at 25%, then go to 50%, 75%, 100%, kind of graduate up. It gives you time to get your foundation laid, your feet under you, and grow a little bit. It\u2019s really good for small businesses in particular,\u201d Mullens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, one of the major strategies is capitalizing on small and large businesses\u2019 successes by carrying that momentum forward and reinvesting it in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mullens said they\u2019re going to take some of the profit gained through sales taxes from the upcoming Park Place shopping outlet and use it to build a new recreation center in South Charleston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a conceptual design, we have hired an architect, ZMM. My vision is for us to have two facilities to replace the one. It\u2019s a health and wellness facility, along with a small coliseum that will seat about 3,500 for our high school basketball games and other major events. We\u2019ve got a conceptual drawing, it\u2019s got an aquatic center, a health club, a gymnasium, the whole works. It\u2019s a beautiful facility,\u201d Mullens said. \u201cThe funding mechanism is the TIF district. So once our stores are open and those sales tax dollars start rolling in, then we\u2019ll be able to start issuing bonds and get things going. It\u2019s not a rumor, we are going to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to give each new business and resident of South Charleston the best experience possible, leading to more businesses and residents moving in. Mayor Mullens, Ream and the South Charleston City Council created a snowball effect where they don\u2019t plan on slowing down anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are honored to partner with Mayor Mullens and the City of South Charleston on the design of the new health and wellness facility. More about the growth in South Charleston, including information on the facility project, is included below in the WOWK article. by Blake DeJarnatt Long-time Mayor of South Charleston Frank Mullens said that to build a thriving city, there are a few things that need to be done. First, you have to be open-minded and welcome to major changes. He exemplified this early on in his mayoral career. \u201cI remember when I took office, the first thing I did was strip downtown. We stripped down the trees. We took the landscape away. We took the crosswalks away. We rebuilt it, and we made it a little more business-friendly. We made it so you could see the business\u2019s signs. When I first did it, some people were like, \u2018I can\u2019t believe you did that,\u2019 but wait a minute, let\u2019s see how it plays out. Change is hard for some folks, but you\u2019ve got to do it,\u201d Mullens said. Diversifying a town\u2019s economy is also one of his major goals. \u201cDiversity is a big thing. We learned our lesson. At one time, South Charleston was the chemical city of the world, and that was great. But, we learned our lesson. You can\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket. You have to be a diverse economy. In that way, if something doesn\u2019t work out well, it doesn\u2019t crush you. You can survive because you\u2019re diverse, you have other things to fall back on,\u201d Mullens said. Most importantly, cities have to be able to support small businesses. Both Ream and Mayor Mullens cited this as one of the reasons for the recent boom of business in the city. The way they\u2019ve accomplished that is by implementing a graduating scale tax system that allows small businesses to lay a solid foundation before paying full taxes. \u201cWe have a tax credit on our books that allows new and expanding businesses to use. Basically what it is, it\u2019s a 0 to 100% graduating scale. So you start out at 25%, then go to 50%, 75%, 100%, kind of graduate up. It gives you time to get your foundation laid, your feet under you, and grow a little bit. It\u2019s really good for small businesses in particular,\u201d Mullens said. Finally, one of the major strategies is capitalizing on small and large businesses\u2019 successes by carrying that momentum forward and reinvesting it in the community. Mayor Mullens said they\u2019re going to take some of the profit gained through sales taxes from the upcoming Park Place shopping outlet and use it to build a new recreation center in South Charleston. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a conceptual design, we have hired an architect, ZMM. My vision is for us to have two facilities to replace the one. It\u2019s a health and wellness facility, along with a small coliseum that will seat about 3,500 for our high school basketball games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33,45,17],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-development","tag-south-charleston","tag-west-virginia"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Charleston welcomes a flurry of new businesses, city leaders speak on success | ZMM Architects and Engineers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are honored to partner with Mayor Mullens and the City of South Charleston on the design of the new health and wellness facility. 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