Mar. 29—A lease for Fruits of Labor, which operates out of a city-owned building in downtown Beckley, has been pushed to the forefront of issues that Beckley’s elected officials are looking to tackle before their term ends on June 30.

Though there’s a clear divide in what city officials would like to see in such a lease, they believe they can accomplish in three months what has yet to be done in the more than two and a half years since the city purchased the building with the intention of moving in Fruits of Labor.

Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold said his vision for the lease is not to generate revenue but to further solidify the city’s partnership with Fruits of Labor and its mission to aid in the recovery of people with substance use disorder.

Beckley Councilmember Cody Reedy said he thinks the lease should serve as a way for the city to recoup more than $1 million it spent on purchase and renovating the property.

“I would like to have a workshop where council works with either Fruits of Labor … or whoever it needs to be on a lease agreement at a fair going rate per square foot in the downtown area or, if they want, they can just purchase the building from the city and we wipe our hands clean,” said Reedy at a Beckley Common Council meeting Tuesday.

“My personal option is, if we’re going to be in the rental business, we need to act more like landlords.”

To ensure a workshop was scheduled, Reedy said he wanted his request to be considered a motion, which Beckley Councilmember Tom Sopher then seconded. An official vote was never called, though no council member spoke against the motion, and Rappold did agree to schedule a workshop.

Fruits of Labor is a culinary training program specifically for people in recovery from substance use disorder. It operates several cafes across southern West Virginia where those in the program train and earn culinary certifications while working as chefs, servers, managers and more.

It opened its Beckley location on Neville Street in August 2022, where it operates a restaurant, coffee shop and pizzeria.

The three-story building it occupies in Beckley was initially purchased by the city in July 2021 for around $1 million with the intention of leasing it to Fruits of Labor.

Since then, Rappold and others in his administration have claimed a lease was in the works, though no official documents have been presented to council.

When The Register-Herald spoke with Rappold on Thursday to discuss matters surrounding the Fruits of Labor lease, he said it was “on him” that a lease was not in place yet.

He added part of the reason the city was dragging its feet was because of the pending opioid lawsuit, which was projected to earn the city millions and could be used for the purpose of supporting recovery programs like Fruits of Labor.

“I’m the first to admit, I kind of drug my feet waiting for those funds to arrive and to see how we could play that into the lease,” Rappold said.

At a Beckley Council meeting in January, Beckley Recorder/Treasurer Billie Trump said the city is expected to receive more than $2 million from the opioid settlement.

It’s unclear when the city will receive those funds. The Raleigh County Commission received its first installment of opioid settlement funds in December in the amount of $3.7 million, but it has yet to announce how it will spend the funds.

While Fruits of Labor’s business model is unique, Reedy said he views it just as he does any other business in the city and thinks it should be treated as such.

“Fruits of Labor is a for-profit and a nonprofit, so that kind of sets the bar a little different in my mind, but being a for-profit business, it shouldn’t be any different than any other business in the city that pays B&O tax and collects the one percent,” he said.

“They shouldn’t be treated differently and handed a free building, which they’ve already had for the last two years now.”

“I just think it’s time that we make them pay. It’s the taxpayers’ dollars that bought this building, and it wasn’t a cheap building.”

Reedy said he’s also tired of the mayor’s administration continuing to push off the issue of the lease with promises that it’s being “worked on” while giving council nothing to show for it.

Reedy, who is running unopposed for Beckley Council at-large, said he envisions being able to produce a lease in the next few months.

“I think it’s very doable,” he said. “Really, in my opinion, I think we just need to have one, maybe two workshops. Maybe a workshop saying what the council wants, and then we write up a lease or a buyout agreement, and Fruits of Labor either accepts or denies it.”

Rappold said he, too, thinks a lease is doable before his term expires in July, though that is the only commonality he shared with Reedy regarding a lease with Fruits of Labor.

Rappold said the city has generated several leases in the past that were not designed to turn a profit.

Most recently, Beckley Council approved a lease renewal with the New River Transit Authority, which operates out of the bottom floor of Beckley Intermodal Gateway.

The lease states that the New River Transit Authority’s rent to the city is $49,062 a year.

However, the New River Transit Authority doesn’t actually pay rent to the city. Instead, the city waives the annual costs and considers it its in-kind contribution toward the operations of the New River Transit Authority.

The city contributes $77,000 to the New River Transit Authority each year.

“I think a lot of cities, if they can afford it, a lot of cities would do something like this as a — quote unquote — urban renewal project or to generate interest in downtown and certainly to save buildings,” Rappold said. “We never anticipated applying that (Fruits of Labor) lease to retire the debt on the building. We paid cash for the building. We were able to do it. It worked out well. We don’t owe a penny on it.”

He added that the lease Reedy is pushing would likely cost upward of $4,000, which Fruits of Labor could not afford.

With only three months left in his term as Beckley mayor, after choosing not to seek reelection, Rappold said he plans to do everything in his power to ensure the future of Fruits of Labor in Beckley.

“I wanted Fruits of Labor to be successful more than anything I’ve ever been involved with,” said Rappold, adding that his support for the organization stems from its mission to aid in the state’s recovery efforts.

Reedy said Rappold promised that Fruits of Labor would help boost the downtown economy, but he doesn’t feel like it’s fulfilled those expectations.

“The mayor and Mr. (Billie) Trump sent us an email yesterday that (Fruits of Labor) has cleaned up Neville Street, but in my opinion, that’s a boldface lie,” he said.

“… I don’t think it’s done what they said it’s done, and I don’t think it’s been as beneficial to the downtown area as they say.”

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com