Just as Zillow helps home buyers find houses for sale, commercial real estate developers will soon be able to find the ideal property in West Virginia’s southern coalfields using a similar land search system developed at West Virginia University.
Our topography is one of our greatest assets, but it’s also one of our greatest challenges,” said Danny Twilley, assistant vice president of economic, community and asset development for the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative.
“We don’t have a ton of developable land, because we don’t have a lot of flat land. So now we have a way to convert those properties into more productive uses, and that doesn’t just mean industry and enterprise. It means conservation. It means recreation. It means agriculture. And if we have excelled in energy extraction and production, we could be the national leaders in environmental restoration, too.”