Earth will again be moving at White Oaks as another company is set to begin construction in the very near future on a seven-figure building at the bustling development just off of Interstate 79.

 

On Feb. 8, Ten Mile Land, LLC, acquired a building permit (at a cost of $13,200) from the City of Bridgeport to begin construction on a $1.8 million, two-story facility. Ten Mile Land owner Chad Johnson said the decades-old company will be looking to break ground this coming week.

 

“We are very excited about this,” said Johnson. “We anticipate doing some pretty great things in the next number of years.”

 

Ten Mile is a mineral and land acquisition company. They operate throughout North Central West Virginia, Johnson said.

 

While the building will be new to White Oaks, Ten Mile Land is not new to Bridgeport or new to the industry. Currently, the company is located along Platinum Drive near the former Division of Motor Vehicles building.

 

Johnson said they have been situated at that location for eight years. They have been in business for more than 20, he added.

 

So why the move?

 

“We have 14 employees right now and we’re bursting at the seams,” said Johnson. “This new building will allow us to expand. We’ll probably expand by 100 percent once we’re in the new building.”

 

The new building will allow for that expansion. Johnson said the building will cover two stories and 12,000 square feet. The site for the new facility covers 1.12 acres.

 

“We’re going to be using both floors, but not immediately. The first floor we’ll be occupying and the second floor, due to the amount of growth we’ve had an expect to have, will be utilized to address that,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to build it out ahead of who we hire so the build out will came when we make the hires.”

 

Johnson, a Bridgeport resident, said one of the best things about the move is that he gets to stay local and in the city. And he said his employees are excited for the move as well.

 

“We love the site; all of my employees and the management team,” said Johnson. “They like the White Oaks area for a number of reasons from accessibility, to the restaurants it has there and the amount of growth that’s taking place there.”

 

Bridgeport Community Development Director Andrea Kerr

 

Work on the building will be done by Huffman Construction, said Johnson. He added that the architect is VanNostrand Architects out of Buckhannon.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Community Development Director Andrea Kerr going over the plans, while a look at the rendering of what the completed building will look like is shown in the second photo. The bottom photo is the company's logo from their Facebook page.