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Rural Belmont County, OH Gets Another New Hotel – in St Clairsville

St. Clairsville with a population of just over 5,000 is the county seat for rural Belmont County, OH. Small villages like St. Clairsville typically have a handful of stores and other businesses. It’s highly unusual for a small town like St. Clairsville to score a major new hotel–but it just has, thanks to the Utica Shale. Belmont County is in the epicenter for the sweet spot in the Utica Shale. Even with drilling scaling back from low prices, there is still plenty of activity–especially in Belmont County. Commonwealth Hotels yesterday announced the opening of the newly constructed 92-room Candlewood Suites St Clairsville. Located at Mall Ring Road, the Candlewood Suites is the newest hotel in the region, conveniently located near I-70…
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RV Parks Pop Up in Ohio Valley for “Transient” Shale Workers

Although drilling activity has slowed in many locations in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, in some places it just keeps booming. Like Belmont and Monroe counties in Ohio. How do we know? Just take a look at the rise of “Oil City” located right next to the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville (Belmont County), OH. Oil City has 120 RVs and campers–all of them workers in the Utica and Marcellus gas fields. They are “transients” in the sense that new workers come in as other workers leave. Some are even from (gasp) “foreign” locations like Texas and Oklahoma (see OH Gov. Kasich Continues Trash Talk Out-of-State Workers). The words transient and foreigner are used by some as a pejorative to denigrate hard-working oilfield workers, blaming them for rowdiness and even for spreading STDs (see Is There a Link Between Fracking & STDs in Ohio?). How are oilfield transients perceived by the locals in the Ohio Valley area? A Monroe County official said this about the 350 transient oilfield workers living in RV parks in his county: “We’ve received little to no negative feedback. Most of them seem to work long hours, so they aren’t around all that much. They fit in pretty well.” So much for those who object to “foreigners” and “transients”…
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PHFA Looking to Build Low Income Housing in Marcellus Region

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) plans to use some of the $5 million they’re getting from the Marcellus Shale impact fee to fix up or build new low income housing projects in areas where there is Marcellus Shale drilling activity. The premise is that because of drilling, either people from outside of the area–or Pennsylvanians themselves–have snapped up apartments and houses in active drilling areas, driving up housing prices to the point that poor folks just can’t afford it anymore. The PHFA answer is to build or renovate housing projects and make them available to low income families/individuals…
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Another Marcellus-Area Trailer Park Sold – For $3.5M

Seems like every now and again UMH Properties, a New Jersey-based real estate investment company, snaps up yet another trailer park. The company has added a number of them in Pennsylvania (see More Housing for Marcellus/Utica on the Way in Pittsburgh Region; Quirky Friday: What’s the Main Selling Point of Erie, PA Trailer Park?; and UMH Pays $5.3M for 2 Trailer Parks in W PA for Marcellus/Utica). UMH buys these properties specifically because they are located in active Marcellus/Utica drilling areas. Until now, all of the properties they’ve purchased close to shale activity have been located in western PA. UMH has just purchased another trailer park for $3.5 million–this one in northeastern PA…
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UMH Pays $5.3M for 2 Trailer Parks in W PA for Marcellus/Utica

We’ve talked about a New Jersey-based real estate investment company, UMH Properties, Inc., a couple of times before. Why? Because they keep buying trailer parks in the Marcellus/Utica with the express hope that drilling activity in the region will lead to high occupancy rates. In July 2014 UMH bought four “manufactured homes communities” in the Pittsburgh area (see More Housing for Marcellus/Utica on the Way in Pittsburgh Region). In January of this year, UMH bought another trailer park–this one in Erie, PA (see Quirky Friday: What’s the Main Selling Point of Erie, PA Trailer Park?). UMH is back–they’ve just purchased two more trailer parks in western PA for $5.3 million…
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Utica Shale Hotels Popping Up Like Dandelions in Spring in Ohio

A brand new 80-room hotel has just opened in Caldwell (Noble County), Ohio, thanks to the Utica Shale. Drill Capital reports the grand opening of a new Wyndham Hotel aimed primarily at workers in the Utica Shale. Drill Capital also reports breaking ground on yet another new hotel–in Cadiz (Harrison County), Ohio…
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New Report: Housing and Marcellus Shale Development in PA

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a bipartisan, bicameral legislative agency that serves as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly, continues to pump out the reports on the Marcellus Shale and its impacts on the state. In January, the Center published their third report in the Marcellus series (see New Report: Marcellus Shale Drilling’s Impact on PA Schools). In February, they issued their fourth report (see Report: PA’s Youth Not Impressed with Marcellus Industry). In March? Yep–a fifth report. This one is titled “Housing and Marcellus Shale Development” (full copy below). This study takes a look at how you house all those Marcellus workers when they show up to start drilling–and does it affect rent prices?…
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Prejudice in Washington, PA – Judge Says No Marcellus Boarding House

Discrimination and prejudice have finally won in Washington, PA–and a dilapidated eyesore will continue to exist because of it. We’re speaking about plans to renovate a former, run-down convent into a boarding house for Marcellus Shale workers in Washington, PA. We’ve previously chronicled City Council’s opposition to the project (see Washington, PA Votes to Reject Marcellus Boarding House). We’ve also chronicled the shameful opposition of Rev. William Feeney and the Immaculate Conception church across the street from their denomination’s abandoned convent–opposed to the plan because it might attract “transients” to the neighborhood (see Marcellus Prejudice on Display at Washington, PA Church). The reverend and parishioners may want to re-read Matthew 25:31-40. The developer looking to create Marcellus housing at the old convent, Robert Starr, took the matter to court. Yesterday he lost…
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Quirky Friday: What’s the Main Selling Point of Erie, PA Trailer Park?

It’s Friday and sometimes the impending weekend puts us in a quirky mood. And then we notice something that strikes us as quirky or interesting–and we pass it along. Such is the case with this story. UMH Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates manufactured home communities in seven states throughout the northeast–trailer parks and modular home communities. UMH issued a press release yesterday to crow about buying yet another trailer park in Erie, PA for $3.8 million. Stick with us, there is a point. The main advantage/reason that UMH purchased this particular trailer park to add to their growing portfolio? It’s located in the Marcellus/Utica region, and because it’s located in prime shale country, they figure occupancy rates will remain high…
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Home Values in Heavily Drilled Western PA Go Up, Not Down

Yet another anti-drilling lie is put to rest–again. You often here that “the value of my house, my property, will decrease if drilling comes to the area.” Not so. Take the uber-drilled area of Allegheny and Washington counties, essentially the Pittsburgh, PA area. Housing values there have gone up–and it’s a “seller’s market” according to real estate professionals. Why? The Marcellus Shale, of course…
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WV/OH Officials Going on Field Trip to Prepare for Cracker Plant

The Odebrecht ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area continues to walk/smell/act/behave like it’s the real deal. The latest evidence: Odebrecht has told area officials around Parkersburg, you need to be prepared for when the 100% official announcement comes, cause at that point, things will happen fast. So area officials are boning up now to be prepared for an influx of people and jobs–both a good thing, and a challenge. Area officials from Wood County, WV and neighboring Washington County, OH will head to the bitter-cold north country–Minot, North Dakota–in January (!) to see how that community has dealt with a rapidly expanding population and influx of new jobs due to the Bakken Shale…
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Penn State Study on Marcellus & Hotels: Saturation Point?

Is the hotel room shortage in the Marcellus region (Pennsylvania specifically) about to turn into a hotel room glut? Has there been a bit of “irrational exuberance” on the part of hoteliers to build, build, build to meeting demand, only to lead to too many rooms? That may be one conclusion you can draw from a new report by Penn State researchers. The report, titled “The Impact of Marcellus Shale Development on Hotel Revenues in Pennsylvania” (full copy below), was recently published by the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE). It set out to determine just how much of an impact Marcellus Shale drilling has had on the hotel industry in PA. They found that (so far) Marcellus drilling has generated $685 million in new revenue and has led to 1,600 new jobs being created…
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More Housing for Marcellus/Utica on the Way in Pittsburgh Region

A New Jersey-based real estate investment company, UMH Properties, Inc., announced yesterday they’ve purchased four manufactured home communities in the Pittsburgh, PA area for $12.2 million. The reason? To expand in the Marcellus/Utica region. The company plans to build homes for sale and for rent to those who work in the Marcellus and Utica Shale…
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Developer Lawsuit Over Denied Marcellus Boarding House Project

As MDN told you a month ago, Washington, PA City Council would rather have a long-abandoned eyesore and former convent stay that way rather than have it improved and used as housing for Marcellus Shale workers (see Washington, PA Votes to Reject Marcellus Boarding House). The developer of the property is not taking City Council’s “no” answer lying down in the gutter, like those who hang around the abandoned convent. Lawyers for the developer have filed a lawsuit to force the issue…
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OSU Extension Says Shale Boom Towns Don’t Have to Go Bust

Are communities that see a boom from shale drilling destined to experience a bust sometime down the road? MDN recalls that was one of the main reasons Cornell “professor” Tony Ingraffea offered for why he doesn’t like shale drilling at a meeting he addressed back in 2010 (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY). However, a new project being launched by Ohio State University’s Extension program says boom then bust “isn’t inescapable” and they aim to help communities avoid that fate…
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PA’s Act 13 Impact Fees Help Fund Affordable Housing

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced yesterday that since 2011, the PA Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Program (PHARE) has invested $49.8 million from natural gas and federal funding sources has been invested in housing initiatives by the Corbett administration to address housing needs created by the growing natural gas industry presence in Pennsylvania. Much of that money has come from Act 13 impact fees…
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