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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — An environmentally friendly battery maker has decided to not move their operations to Monongalia County.
SPARKZ, an energy startup with a focus in lithium-ion battery production, will move to southern West Virginia, to build a battery “gigafactory” after months of negotiations to take over an old Mylan Pharmaceuticals warehouse on Collins Ferry Road. The decision was made due to negotiations made on a state level to relocate their future facility.
“It’s just a frustration that I know we’ve worked on bringing the business in and we thought we had them and things happen,” said Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom on their response to the news.
The decision to move to the southern part of the state, comes after Monongalia County Commission approved to cover up to two years of interest-only payments to the Collins Ferry Road property. With the hopes that a new tennant will be seen on the property, Commission agreed to cover an additional $60,000 of payments to help negotiations with a different future tennant.
“The ask is much lower, but the opportunity is still the same to bring an economic development entity into that facility,” said Commissioner Sean Sikora on the new agreement.
Negotiations are underway for a replacement tennant on the property, which is expected to specialize in high-level technology. The new tenant, came from a list from the State Department that was offered to Commission as negotiations with SPARK fell through. The new set of negotations with a new potential tenant, are expected to take place in the coming months.
“I do have to say thank you to the state,” said Bloom. “They did offer some other businesses, so I will say that, just not the one that we wanted,” he said.
Despite the setback, an effort to bring more economic development in Monongalia County will continue as new businesses are lobbied to set up shop in the county. The Morgantown Industrial Park, is part of those efforts as they now have over fifthteen tennants with more expected to follow, as well as continued negotiations to have new businesses take over old Mylan Pharmaceutical properties. While dissapointment is prevalent, there is hope that the facilities on Collins Ferry Road, will have a technology based tenant in the future.