Mar 13, 2026 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The announcement during last year’s inaugural Washington County Real Estate Expo that a Costco wholesale store would soon be coming to the former Washington Mall site was the big reveal of the daylong event.

But during a breakout session with the county commissioners during Thursday’s second annual event at Washington & Jefferson College, officials focused more on the meat and potatoes of government, touting plans to construct a new public safety building while also trying to remove blight and redevelop old industrial sites.

“We didn’t do any big unveiling like we did last year,” commission Chairman Nick Sherman said with a laugh.

Sherman and fellow Commissioner Electra Janis spent nearly an hour during the session with about 40 people in attendance discussing what county officials are doing to redevelop the county and attract more people to the area. On either side of Sherman and Janis were artistic renderings illustrating what the county’s new public safety building will look like when it’s constructed at the former Courthouse Square property in Washington.

Sherman said the demolition of the Courthouse Square building, which once housed the county government offices, and other blight mitigation efforts across the region are important first steps in redevelopment. He pointed to the $12 million in federal COVID-era stimulus recovery money that the county has used to tear down old structures that had become eyesores, including the $6 million paid to demolish the old Washington Mall to make way for Costco and other stores.

“Part of economic development is about shaking the rust off the old,” Sherman said.

Some in the audience asked if the Marcellus Shale boom that began in the late 2000s has waned somewhat and whether Southpointe is still considered the “energy capital” of the east with office space less occupied than before the pandemic. Sherman said he thinks Southpointe’s economic impact is still significant despite the popularity of remote work, but he added there are other sites that are growing, such as the Fort Cherry Development District near McDonald. He said county officials are also interested in how brownfield sites in the Mon Valley can be used for potential data centers.

“We were lucky to have Marcellus Shale, but it’s a lot about working together and moving in the same direction,” Sherman said.

Janis said there are other important developments happening in Washington County, such as the recent $50 million endowment from Anica Donnan Rawnsley to W&J to offer free tuition to all county students who wish to go to college there. The college and George Washington Hotel also partnered recently to convert the building’s top two floors into student housing.

“There are a lot of incentives for kids who grew up here to stay here,” Janis said.

Improving the medical care offered in the county has also been important, with many changes in the past few years. UPMC took over operations of Washington Hospital in 2024 and Allegheny Health Network is in the process of building a new hospital to replace Canonsburg Hospital.

“There are a lot of things aside from the energy industry, which we’re tackling, to keep people here,” Janis said.

Sherman added that WVU Medicine has “planted their flag” in the county with its new offices in Southpointe and urgent care centers that are popping up in the region.

“Not only is there growth, but there is competing growth,” Sherman said.

Other panel discussion and breakout sessions included talks about commercial retail growth, the real estate market and the push to build data centers. The breakout room, where the commissioners spoke, had various sessions throughout the day and allowed for more informal back-and-forth conversations with attendees.

This year’s expo was slimmed down compared to last year’s lengthy event, which had numerous panel discussions from morning until night in the college’s cavernous basketball gymnasium. This time, it was in a much more intimate gathering inside the Ross Family Recreation Center with a smaller stage set up beside the more than 70 vendors spread out across the indoor gymnasium.