Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990 TAG: 9005130202
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY FORMANEK JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MARTINSBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
"I can't say I'm happy about doing it," Cushwa said. "At one time I used to be against this type of development. But I have to do it to survive. I guess you can say we're growing houses instead of apples."
Along the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, farmland and woodland is being snapped up at a pace that has experts predicting a repeat of the boom that swept through Northern Virginia a decade ago.
While the rest of West Virginia is among the nation's poorest and most economically depressed states, its three-county Eastern Panhandle, less than 80 miles from Washington, D.C., is looking to some commuters as an attractive alternative to traffic-choked Northern Virginia and southern Maryland.
Housing priced nearly half that of Maryland and Virginia is luring federal employees, retirees and middle-class workers employed at the growing number of companies moving to the area.
"After paying 21 percent interest on loans to cover [orchard] operating costs, we just decided there had to be another way," said Cushwa, 42, whose Duchess Estates features homes priced from $130,000 to $180,000.
"My father wouldn't be too happy if he was still alive," he said. "It's good for business. It's good for employment. But it gets to you when you drive through and see all those houses instead of apple trees."
Struggling orchard growers, hit hard by a drought and killing frosts this spring, aren't the only ones cashing in.
Batman Corp., headed by Iranian-born developer Bahman Batmanghelidj of McLean, Va., has purchased or plans to buy 2,500 acres near Charles Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia's eastern tip.
Batmanghelidj's company is one of the largest developers in the Virginia corridor between Washington and Dulles Airport.
Hap Holladay, vice president of Holladay Corp. of Washington, D.C., whose company recently bought 885 acres nearby for $7.2 million, plans 3,500 units of town houses and one-family homes. Eighty acres have been set aside for light industry.
"We plan on being there a long time," said Holladay. "Once people get a look at it, they're going to love it. And it's not a bad commute. I know one thing, I haven't had any trouble selling the idea to homebuilders."
The federal government is interested in West Virginia as a high-tech alternative to Washington.
The U.S. Coast Guard is moving its computer division to Berkeley County and funding for a new Department of Interior fish and wildlife training center has been approved for Jefferson County.
The federal General Services Administration recently advertised plans to buy up to 15 acres near Martinsburg. GSA officials refused to discuss the deal but indicated more government agencies are considering the area.
The Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have expressed interest in a private research park proposed by a Texas-based developer.
by CNB