WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — By 2019, the floodwater that ravaged White Sulphur Springs and other parts of West Virginia three years earlier had long since receded. The ground was dry but the devastation remained, and Adam Whanger could easily sum up the appearance of the once-bustling Main Street of his youth: “It was a ghost town.â€
“Everything was completely empty,†he said.
It had been in a slow decline since the mid-1990s. The flood all but finished the job.
Heading to a meeting with the new, out-of-state owners of the main stretch of downtown property, he could park his truck (and the trailer behind it) sideways, across several vacant parking spots because, “There was no one ever parked there,†he said.
“Homeless people slept in some of these buildings,†he added. “We’d walk around, and you’d find needles on the ground. There was a lot of drugs here then.â€
The meeting was with Charlie Hammerman and his wife, Nanci Freiman, co-founders of the New York-based . They had a vision for renovating downtown White Sulphur Springs. Thanks to an arrangement with the U.S. Department of Treasury, they also had the resources to make it happen. They were interviewing contractors, like Adam, to take on the project.
“Charlie asked why I wanted this job [doing the renovations], and I told him I actually grew up here and I remembered what it used to be like. We moved back, and we’d drive through here and there was nothing here,†Adam said.
“And I said, ‘I would love to drive through the town one day and tell my kids and my grandkids that we helped do this, build this.’ And that just set with Charlie.â€
Residents, of course, had heard about the purchase of their dilapidated downtown.
“I think there was a lot of support from the community, that they wanted to see Main Street redone,†Candace Whanger said. “They wanted businesses here. They wanted people to come not just for The Greenbrier [resort] but for the town, for people that live here that actually wanted places to shop.â€
She and her husband own , Greenbrier Glass & Mirror and Ace Hardware, all of which have been instrumental in the renovation of Main Street.
The meeting that day was successful. They landed the contract. And as they were about to learn, it would involve long days and weeks to complete the vision that began — through a random combination of luck and fate — almost a year before.
‘It was sad’
The New York-based nonprofit Disability Opportunity Fund is one of thousands of financial institutions formed to support community development for low-income people or economically distressed communities. The DOF had received a grant from the federal government and had pledged to use those funds in a rural area. Little did they know, White Sulphur Springs checked multiple boxes.
“My parents [Charlie and Nanci] visited West Virginia for the first time in 2018,†said Genny Freiman, chief operating officer of the DOF. “There were people living in these extremely rundown apartments. And it was pretty frightening conditions. It was sad.â€
They talked with the mayor and members of the city council, and they heard about the havoc wreaked by the water from Howard’s Creek. The flood, they realized, had put the entire community at an economic disadvantage — one of the criteria for use of the funds they had received.
“After learning the story, my parents decided, ‘Well, this is where we want to put the money. We want to help this community rebuild itself,’†Freiman said. “Our main focus was helping them turn it around, make it a place that people want to visit, and make an area that the people who live there are proud to live there.â€
Buying Main Street
The DOF purchased the buildings along Main Street from multiple owners in 2019 and 2020. Genny Freiman confirmed the purchase price — as Greenbrier County records show — at just over $1.6 million for all properties. Then, the Whangers were hired to rehab the properties in the Eastern Greenbrier County town of 2,200.
“We put in all brand-new utilities underground ‘cause everything was a mess overhead,†Adam said. “We put all new fronts on all the buildings. We put all new roofs, all new wiring. And we did 15 apartments up above.â€
Because the DOF has a niche focus on improving life for people with disabilities, the updated facilities needed to have wider aisles, ramps and accessible restrooms, where possible. But in the case of White Sulphur Springs, they also expanded the definition of “disability†to more accurately fit the scope of the project.
“It was economic impact. And also, if you have a drug problem, you have a disability,†Adam said. “Or, if you’re in a town like this, you get so far behind that you feel like you can’t get nowhere, your hands are tied. It is a disability.â€
It was exhausting work, but also invigorating.
“There were plenty of times that we worked 7 days a week, 14, 15 hours days,†he said. “I got very excited and, I’ll be honest with you, halfway through it, I was a little worried and very tired. But we made it.â€
And there were still a few surprises in store.
Renovations gain momentumSlowly, the refurbished spaces began to fill up, including:
- , owned by the Whangers and managed by Candace Whanger. “I’m very proud of her,†Adam said, adding that the store now grosses annual revenue of more than $1 million. “For just a little hometown hardware store, that’s nice.â€
- , a coffee shop and bakery, owned by Kennedy Black and named for her great grandmother
- , also owned by the Whangers and managed by April Church
- opening in June with plans to offer live music; dance, art and theater classes; open mic nights and more
- , a unique barber shop and hair salon owned by Traelynn Denning. It offers nail services, tattoos and permanent makeup
- , a board game cafe owned by Jade Hanna, with food the customers rave about and board games for every age and skill level
- Elite Home Management Service, owned by Ashley Frescas, who — with her team — handles home services for absentee owners of the Greenbrier Sporting Club properties
- 15 one- and two-bedroom apartments on the second floor of the businesses overlooking Main Street, all rented
- , a golf training, fitting and retail store owned by Brandon Watkins
With the exception of the golf shop, every other business is “either owned by women or managed by women,†Candace Whanger said. “You would be surprised what women can do.â€
That wasn’t part of the plan.
“As we were completing renovations, part of my job was to find business owners, or people who wanted to start businesses, and help them out, find the right space for them, work with them on a mini business plan, a [profit and loss statement], all of that,†Genny said.
“And we put up signs in a lot of the storefronts, so I got a decent amount of phone calls. And they were all from women who either wanted to start their own business or have been working out of their homes for a year or two and wanted to bring it into a storefront.â€
‘Elegant but ...
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Traelynn Denning, 39, said she’s been cutting hair since she was 13 and was running a national chain salon when she heard there might be opportunity for something of her own on Main Street.
“I approached Charlie with my business plan. I just pitched it to him and he loved it,†she said. “He said this place was nothing but cinder blocks. I got to design it.â€
But she needed startup funds — and met with Charlie again.
“He gave me a $50,000 loan for us to buy all the equipment, build the cabinets, get my tanning beds ... my pedicure stations, my nail stations,†she said.
“And this is 1,800 pounds of granite right here in the center,†she added, pointing to a long custom counter. “It’s elegant, but it’s badass in here. I love it.â€
She pays $1,200 a month for 2,400 square feet, and said she paid the loan off in two years.
Just down the street, Kennedy Black was driving roughly two hours a day for work as a pastry artist and shift supervisor.
“Charlie Hammerman came to Rotary and talked about the space that he had available and how he wanted a food place to go in that wasn’t pizza, that was different, that could bring something to the community,†she said.
Although she’d run a bakery, owning one is a whole different animal, Black said.
“They helped me get a business license. They helped me know how to do that whole back end of stuff. And some of it I’ve learned on my own,†she said.
Since opening in 2021, she, too, paid off the $32,000 loan the DOF provided for equipment and initial supplies.
“It’s awesome to see so many women own businesses, because the first accountant I ever went to talk to about helping me start told me that, unless I was married with a husband who had a six-figure salary, I was never going to make it,†she said, adding that the accountant has since apologized.
Kennedy, 29, credits her own drive and the community support for her success.
“To be able to bring something back and have it live and thrive is great,†she said.
Old White Sulphur Springs High School
As the downtown came to life, with other businesses opening and thriving, parking at a premium and customers from The Greenbrier and The Sporting Club and beyond, the DOF turned its attention to the shuttered White Sulphur Springs High School a block away, purchasing the campus, with its abandoned buildings, and turning it into an upscale, 30-room facility called the that reflects the history of classes once taught and games once played there.
The DOF still owns the renovated school but, as the town began to thrive, the co-owners realized it was time for them to move on.
“Charlie came to us one day and he says, ‘We’re gonna sell these buildings ‘cause our job is to fix everything up then sell it. That’s what we do,†Adam said.
As much as Candace and Adam understood, the project has been personal for them from the very beginning. They didn’t want someone taking over who didn’t understand the history, the passion, the vision.
“And I said, ‘Charlie, I’d like for it to be local people,’†Adam recalled.
“He said, ‘Would you want the opportunity to purchase it?’ And we said, ‘Yes, we’d like to purchase it.’â€
They were nervous. County sales records show they paid just over $3 million for their section of Main Street, a figure confirmed by Adam.
“It’s a huge risk,†Candace said.
But Adam thought back to that first conversation he had with the out-of-staters from something called the DOF, and the dream he had about telling his kids and grandkids that he built this downtown.
As luck would have it, he didn’t have to wait long for that conversation. The grandkids are still pretty young. But the older sons work with him, and the youngest — who is just 12 — will likely get his chance soon enough.
“It took me 20 years of 80-hour weeks to get what we have,†he said. “I say [to my son], ‘Listen dude, if you put your heart and soul in it and share your vision with other people heartfully, it will come.’â€
