Granville A TA L E OF TWO TOWNS
SHOPPING CENTERS Whether you’re on the hunt for something specific or just looking for
some good old- fashioned retail therapy, you’ll find it here.
UNIVERSITY TOWN CENTRE Big box stores and restaurants on the northwest side Along I-79, between exits 153 and 155
SUNCREST TOWNE CENTRE Boutiques and
restaurants in the north central part of town Chestnut Ridge Road at Stewartstown Road THE GATEWAY Craft, sporting goods, and other specialty retail and dining on the northwest side of town Chaplin Road, west of I-79 Exit 155 PIERPONT CENTRE AND PIERPONT LANDING Big box stores, boutiques, and restaurants northeast of town Along Cheat Road on either side of I-68’s Exit 7 WESTRIDGE Look for new dining and retail at I-79 exits 153 and 155 in 2021 and beyond.
brands like Target, T.J. Maxx, and Dick’s Sporting Goods do business there alongside restaurant chains including LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Panda Express. Automobile dealerships and medical and legal services have set up shop there, and the Monongalia County Ballpark, opened in 2015, hosts the West Virginia Black Bears, a collegiate summer baseball team of the Major League Baseball Draft League. Over time, University Town Centre has tripled Granville’s population through the addition of both student and upscale apartments—and, meanwhile, the old Main Street, with its town hall and post office, has kept its small- town appeal.
everything changed for the once-prosperous coal mining town of Granville when the first shops started opening at University Town Centre in 2005. The new shopping center occupied a former strip mine on the bluff high above Main Street, and the town council of the little community of 800 committed to road maintenance, fire protection, and 24-hour police protection at a new destination that potentially could become very large. University Town Centre became very large indeed. But because the development of the two-mile-long mixed-use complex we know today took place over more than a decade, Granville was able to meet the initial challenge and grow its services alongside the operation. Stretched out long beside the Monongahela River, old Granville has an enviable riverfront. Residents liked life the way it was before the shopping center opened, and they’ve kept it just about like it was—with improvements to the town’s park and ballfields and to street services and emergency response. Meanwhile, new Granville, the commercial district 500 feet overhead, draws people from counties around for retail, dining, lodging, and entertainment. National retail
GENERAL AREA Between I-79 and the Monongahela River, north of Westover SCHOOLS Skyview Elementary, Westwood Middle, University High AVERAGE SALE PRICE 2020 $133,000 INTERESTING FACT Granville-born Marmaduke Dent earned the first bachelor’s and master’s degrees ever awarded by West Virginia University and became a justice on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
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