Eco-tourism project, affordable veterinary clinic among Southwest Virginia projects receiving abandoned mine land grants

An eco-tourism resort and residential development in Tazewell County and a veterinary clinic in Wise County that will offer affordable animal care to lower-income residents are among five Southwest Virginia projects that will receive a total of $6.12 million in Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program grants.

The federal fund, known as AMLER, transforms former coal mining land into sites for economic growth and community improvement in the coalfields area. The grants were announced in a joint news release by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.

The largest grant, $2 million, will go to the Wolf Creek Resort & Lodge project, a “transformative eco-tourism and outdoor recreation destination” that will be developed on 1,200 acres in a valley near Burkes Garden in Tazewell County.

The money will go toward purchasing the privately owned land. The total estimated cost of the project is $75 million, according to the AMLER grant application filed with the Virginia Department of Energy, which administers the fund.

“Centered around the pristine Wolf Creek watershed and nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, the project integrates environmental conservation, sustainable development and rural economic revitalization,” states the application by the county’s industrial development authority.

The project will be developed in three phases over seven years, and it will include an upscale lodge, a residential development with 650 private homes and an equestrian facility.

The resort will offer direct access to the Jefferson National Forest and the Appalachian Trail, and there will be multi-use recreation trails and trout fishing opportunities on the Wolf Creek River.

The project is expected to bring tourism-based revenue to the area and create jobs in hospitality, outdoor recreation, equine services, agriculture, maintenance and administration, as well as temporary construction jobs.

Another $10 million will be sought from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission for phase one infrastructure improvements and design development, according to the application. Jordan Butler, tobacco region opportunity fund manager and public relations director for the commission, said Thursday that the group is aware of the project but has not yet received an application for funding.

Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, is working with Tazewell and Bland county officials on the project, which he said is “very early in the planning stages.”

“The project … would create much-needed jobs, tax revenue and for new residents from outside of Appalachia to visit or locate to the region, which is desperately needed to help address the issue of population loss,” Morefield said Wednesday. “Existing businesses are closing throughout parts of Appalachia because the population is dwindling. Tourism has proven to be a significant asset that our region has to capitalize on. And we need to make every effort to support tourism-related projects.”

He added that Southwest Virginia does not currently have the resources or infrastructure to attract the types of companies that are locating in other parts of the state, but that will change if the population grows through tourism.

According to the latest population projections from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, nearly every locality in Southwest and Southside Virginia will continue to lose people over the next 25 years, with many expected to lose a quarter or more of their population.

The current plan is for most of the resort project to be owned by the counties’ industrial development authorities, so most of the proceeds would benefit the localities rather than a private company, Morefield said. The IDAs would hire a major hotel chain or resort management company to handle construction and operate the resort, he added.

Morefield said he would also like to see a revenue-sharing agreement for the resort patterned after the one that founders of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Bristol developed to share revenues across 14 localities in Southwest Virginia.

“The Hard Rock Casino has been extremely successful, and the shared tax revenue has made a tremendous positive impact on local budgets. Specifically, for this project, I’m hoping Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Smyth counties will be included in the revenue-sharing agreement with Bland and Tazewell counties,” he said.

More details about the resort will be released in the coming months, Morefield said.

A $1.88 million AMLER grant will go to the Wise County Veterinary Clinic and Outreach Center, a 4,200-square-foot facility that St. Mary’s Health Wagon plans to build on its medical campus in Wise.

The nonprofit clinic will “address critical gaps in affordable animal care for low-income families and underserved communities in Central Appalachia — many of whom currently lack access to basic veterinary services,” the funding application states.

It will also stimulate economic and community development by transforming a previous mining site into a clinic that creates jobs, supports volunteer and student training opportunities and increases traffic to the area, it says.

The grant will be used for the first phase of the project, which will include construction, environmental assessments and compliance, utility infrastructure and veterinary equipment.

The clinic’s services will include spay/neuter surgeries, urgent surgical care, dental procedures, vaccinations, diagnostic testing and radiography.

The project will help reduce regional overpopulation and preventable disease while alleviating financial burdens for residents, according to the application.

The Health Wagon has provided medical care in the region for more than 40 years. In recent years, those working with the organization have seen a “growing animal care crisis — families struggling to afford treatment for beloved pets, and even patients sacrificing their own medications to buy pet food. And we’ve done home visits where dogs and cats were clearly just as loved — and just as in need — as the humans we were there to treat,” the Health Wagon said in a Facebook post announcing the project.

Since 2017, the organization has been involved with the Armed Services’ Innovative Readiness Training program, along with other volunteer vet clinics, and has provided more than 6,400 no-cost procedures, according to the post.

The project was the vision of PAWS of Southwest Virginia, which saw the need and approached the Health Wagon to submit the application, the post states.

The other projects approved for AMLER funding in Southwest Virginia are:

• $1.15 million to Buchanan County for rehabilitation of a flood-damaged sewer system to protect the waterways and support future growth. Since August 2021, the county has had three major flooding events, two in the Hurley community and the other in the Whitewood area.

• $950,000 to a Wise County project to pay for engineering and site development for a bridge linking the Powell River Trail to the Big Stone Gap Greenbelt across U.S. 23.

• $140,000 to Scott County to replace the roof on the Pinnacle Center in Duffield, which houses a small business incubator.

The AMLER money comes from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Since 2017 in Virginia, 50 projects have been recommended for funding. Virginia is one of six states and three tribes that receive AMLER funding.

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