The TBAI project will be housed in a former coal company store (Ashland Company Store) located in Ashland, West Virginia.  This previously uninhabited and decaying building has been rehabilitated and restored to its original state and designated/preserved as an historical site.  The Ashland Company Store will serve as the focal point for all TBAI activities which include business incubation services (comprehensive small/micro-business development, retail space for crafts and products, marketing assistance, commercial kitchen rental, business mentoring), job training, computer training, and food service.  TBAI will oversee the development and management of the Ashland Company Store which will house the business/kitchen incubator with the focus on development of food and craft products to market to the tourist brought to McDowell County in the private developments as listed above.  The kitchen incubator has an immediate customer, the Coal Camp Café, which will be located within the Ashland Company Store.  The kitchen incubator will be utilized in the production of food for this café.

The development of tourism through the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System (HMTS), the doors have opened for new and expanded business opportunities in southern West Virginia.  The trail system opened 55 miles of trails in McDowell County in March 2007.  This will increase tourism opportunities in the area that has been devastated by unemployment since the loss of coal mining jobs in the mid 1980’s.  Within 10 years plans are for there to be three Hatfield-McCoy Trail Systems connecting McDowell, Wyoming and Mercer Counties with over 300 miles of ATV and non-motorized trails converging at the Ashland Trailhead.  One of our for-profit partners in this outdoor “sports recreational resort” with trails for motorized recreation as well as trails for hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders.

Through this effort, the community of Ashland should have new life as a Coal Heritage Village.  The coal heritage theme will be carried into the restored Ashland Company Store, Coal Camp Café, and a new retail service center providing residents and tourists with gas, groceries, car wash, ATV services and rentals, and a host of other entrepreneurial ventures nurtured by the non-profit TBAI.

TBAI began working with local entrepreneurs in June 2006.  The Ashland Company Store opened their doors in October 2006.