RCBI’s welding and robotics training center to be first tenant at ACF property

To set up the manufacturing hub, $8.2 million will go toward the project. The Huntington Municipal Development Authority purchased the ACF Industries property in 2020 for $3.12 million. The site is now part of the Huntington Brownfields Innovation Zone, or H-BIZ. Within the past year, buildings on the property have been demolished.

The first anchor tenant of the H-BIZ manufacturing hub is a new welding and robotics technology training center that Marshall University’s Robert C. Byrd Institute will oversee in partnership with Mountwest Community and Technical College. RCBI will use robotic welding technology at this new training center and integrate it into its advanced welding program.

The center will support City of Huntington efforts to grow additional manufacturing job opportunities, said Charlotte Weber, longtime RCBI director and now vice president of government relations for Marshall University, in the news release.

“This state-of-the-art Welding & Robotics Technology Training Center will make training more accessible and provide unbelievable hands-on access to the latest advanced training technologies to meet the needs of area manufacturers, train students for in-demand, good-paying jobs here at home and grow a highly skilled workforce required to attract new industry to the state,” Weber said.

RCBI’s welding training program is nationally recognized and includes direct customized training for manufacturers as well as a student program in partnership with Mountwest. The program does not have a permanent home and only has welding training three evenings a week. Since beginning seven years ago, 230 students who have earned more than 1,100 American Welding Society certificates have been through RCBI’s welding program. The National Energy Technology Laboratories recognized the program as an Advanced Welding Workforce Initiative.

The dedicated welding training site “will allow for a major increase in enrollment, the installation of state-of-the-art training technologies and the ability to run day and evening courses throughout the whole week to meet student and industry demand,” the city said.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said Friday he believes that the “dirt flying” soon at ACF and nearby properties, such as the site for the future Marshall University baseball stadium, will encourage more tenants to locate at the site. He added that the city is working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to get clearance to start building at the site.

“As owner and developer of the former ACF site, the Huntington Municipal Development Authority (HMDA) considers it a privilege to spearhead the redevelopment of this historical, 150-year-old brownfield property into an environmentally clean industrial and commercial site with modern amenities,” said Cathy Burns, executive director of HMDA. “The Build Back Better Regional Challenge investment will allow existing businesses to retain and add jobs and strengthen partnerships with the renowned training programs of RCBI to expand to meet the growing needs of a transformative workforce.”

The ACT Now Coalition, led by Coalfield Development Corp., includes the cities of Huntington, Charleston and Logan; West Virginia and Marshall universities; and several economic revitalization organizations and private-sector innovators. The goal of the initiative is to transform southern West Virginia’s economy through sustainable efforts such as the redevelopment of industrial spaces and brownfields for modern manufacturing.