Cindi Alkire is looking forward to getting her kitchen back. For the past few years, it’s been overrun with the layers of ingredients she needs to make her award-winning banana pudding cookies and maple oatmeal cream pie cookies.

“Everybody loved the cookies, so I just started making more and more and more,” she said. 

Baking helped her pass the time as she recovered from cancer in her quiet hometown of Wellsburg in rural West Virginia. What began as a creative endeavor quickly morphed into a business, after her brother offered to sell the cookies at his hot dog shop.

Farmers markets and blue ribbons at a county fair followed. Then an opportunity presented itself that she felt she couldn’t pass up. A years-long revitalization effort for Wellsburg’s town square had reached the point where small businesses were being welcomed into the redeveloped buildings. 

The invitation meant The Kookie Jar would have a brick and mortar location. Anyone could just pop in and answer their craving for an ultimate chocolate chip or strawberry crunch cookie without having to wait for a weekend market.

“It was a fantastic opportunity for us,” she said. “We are super excited.”

That opportunity was a long time coming, brought together by the town’s volunteer Urban Renewal Authority, a mix of public and philanthropic funding, and Alkire’s inspired recipes. Alex Weld, the chairwoman of Wellsburg’s Urban Renewal Authority, now has the opportunity to see the potential she imagined years ago come to life for a town she loves. 

“I think downtown revitalization is critically important to rural America and it’s also very tough,” Weld said. “I hope this building will spur additional economic activity downtown.”

The Kookie Jar is opening in what Wellsburg refers to as The Bell Building, a previously rundown, historic building in the town square. The WV Brownfields Assistance Center designated the property as a BAD Building, which stands for Brownfields, Abandoned, Dilapidated. It is one of three buildings the Urban Renewal Authority purchased for $100 from its previous owner as an investment in the town’s future economic health. Nothing was happening downtown, and the Urban Renewal Authority wanted to change that.

“Truly, most people were like, ‘You’re nuts. Why aren’t you tearing this down?’” Weld said. “The building was in very, very poor shape.”

But its spirit wasn’t. 

The Downtown Appalachia program, facilitated by the WV Brownfield Center and funded by the CDFI partner Community Capital, was an early technical assistance provider in the town square. The early technical assistance kept the redevelopment potential bubbling, leading to Opportunity Appalachia’s involvement.

In the years leading up to actual work being done on the building, Wellsburg began to host block parties in the town square to bring locals back and raise money for the revitalization effort. People would mingle among food trucks to the backdrop of live music and reminisce about the days when an assortment of businesses used to draw people to the community.  

Weld said this project draws on that nostalgia while leaning into a desire to meet the real needs of a town that is home to about 2,000 people. 

Plans for The Bell Building included ground-floor retail along with upper level apartments, a type of housing that is hard to find in rural towns in general, including Wellsburg. The Urban Renewal Authority patched together predevelopment funds it received from several organizations, including: Community Foundation for Ohio Valley and Appalachian Community Capital’s Opportunity Appalachia Program to secure $750,000 in congressionally allocated funding to move the project forward. 

“Real development dollars are really, really hard, especially when it’s not going to be used for a public building,” Weld said. “This is businesses and housing, so it’s more challenging to find funds. Congressionally directed spending has been the only path we have found.”

Weld said it would not have made financial sense, without the support of public funding, and might not be even possible for a small business owner like Alkire to purchase a building, revitalize it on her own and come out from under that debt even after 30 years. If they wanted renewed economic activity in the town square, Wellsburg would have to lead the way.

With a permanent space outside of her home, Alkire decided to expand her cookie operation. She found a small roaster that will provide The Kookie Jar with coffee and she found a local syrup vendor from whom she will purchase soy-free and gluten-free organic syrup. She’s also making space, in her quaint shop, for locally-baked sourdough bread, locally-made soap and locally-produced honey and jellies. 

Alkire appreciates that keeping her business local allows The Kookie Jar to lift up other businesses in the community. 

“Supporting everyone in the community, it’s huge for us to do so. We’re trying to give back where we can and keep it as local as we can,” she said. “All the wonderful people we’ve met over the years at markets that don’t have the opportunity or the space that we have found. We’re just trying to give the community a space.”