MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The proposed 350,000-square-foot Owens & Minor medical warehouse that will employ up to 100 people to start is being delayed. The warehouse will supply clinical supplies, surgical supplies, and custom procedure tray assembly and sterilization to WVU Medicine and others.
The $50 million project was initially planned to open in February 2024 in WestRidge; however, a new location has been selected and the opening has been pushed out to February 2025.
Here is the full statement from Owens & Minor:
Construction on our medical supply logistics hub in Morgantown, WV, is slated to begin next month at a new site recently selected by Owens & Minor and its regional partners. In the interim, Owens & Minor continues to serve all of its customers in the region as usual, including WVU Medicine. We remain excited by our long-term strategic collaboration with WVU Medicine to help strengthen healthcare supply chain resilience in West Virginia and beyond. We anticipate that construction at our new Morgantown site will be complete in early 2025.
WestRidge, Inc. released the following statement through Megan O’Reilly, WestRidge Director of External Relations :
As previously announced, Owens & Minor entered into a build-to-suit lease agreement for a new medical distribution center to be located at WestRidge. Site preparation began in Fall 2022 and continued in 2023. Unfortunately, we can confirm that the commencement of building construction has been delayed. We are not able to provide further comment at this time due to related and ongoing discussions; however, we remain fully committed to working diligently with all parties involved to address any challenges and complete the specialty project sought by Owens & Minor.
WestRidge aims to attract and secure new companies to the region, whether in the office, industrial, or retail markets, in order to spur economic growth and enhance our region’s offerings. We appreciate our stakeholder and community support and will provide further updates to the public regarding this project once confirmed.
Owens and Minor developed a relationship during the personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages caused by the pandemic. At the time, both companies expected some cost savings while building resiliency in the event of another national or regional emergency.
WVU Medicine elected to add nothing to the Owens & Minor statement.