Rich Investments Group invests in community togetherness

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A new business worked to bring a renewed sense of community to St. Clairsville this past weekend.

Newly opened business Rich Investments Group LLC held its first of many community events on Saturday. Rich Investments is a locally owned and operated real estate company that purchases real estate to renovate and resell properties. The company held “Community Day” at its headquarters at 48000 National Road in St. Clairsville, which was formerly referred to as the park-and-ride location off Interstate 70 exit 215.

“As we were getting set up and started moving in, the chamber of commerce approached us to do a ribbon cutting. In my experience the only people who come to a ribbon cutting are the chamber of commerce people, so it’s not getting our name out there to the community,” Rich Investments Group LLC Managing Member Eric Richards said. “So we put our heads together and thought instead of a ribbon cutting, let’s throw a block party Community Day event and invite everybody.”

The Community Day had multiple food trucks and vendors as well as inflatable games and attractions provided by Kurt James Fun and Games, Ohio Valley Foamz, Route 40 Lumberjaxe, and music provided by Jake Wharton of Ten Strings Tavern. The festivities ended with a fireworks display that was provided by Rich Investments Group LLC.

Richards said he plans on making Community Day an annual event.

“This will be one of many events that we do a year. Just from the feedback that we’ve received from this, there’s a deficit in this area of people giving back to the community,” he said.

Rich Investments Group LLC was originally the idea of Richards, who’s been a real estate investor for two years. Richards met Managing Member Jordan Murry through a mutual friend, and they realized that they shared similar goals for a real estate investment company.

“The very first day that I met Eric we talked about what our goals were and everything was perfectly in line. I think we got dialed in and started hitting our stride. We brought on more team members to divvy out the responsibilities to make sure that all of the different responsibilities are taken care of,” Murry said.

He added that Rich Investments Group LLC does everything from long-term buying holds to fixes and flips, wholesale properties and rent-to-own programs.

“The rent-to-own program is for everybody, but it specifically targets people in need. That could be veterans that need a place whether it’s going through (Veterans Administration) loans or they’re not able to apply for one to give them the ability to one day become homeowners through the rent-to-own program,” Murray added. “Veterans, single parents, people in recovery, whatever it is, we want that program to be specifically designed for them to give those people kind of a light at the end of the tunnel that you one day become homeowners and we’re not really looking at the red tape numbers as a typical bank does.”

Richards said that along with housing properties, he also plans on renovating commercial properties.

“We have a couple of commercial buildings. We have a large commercial building in Bridgeport that has the greater (National Alliance on Mental Illness) of Wheeling as one of our tenants, Creative Customs who’s one of the vendors here at Community Day. I would say they are one of the best T-shirt printing shops in the area.”

Richards added that he plans to renovate a portion of the building to create a studio where artists can rent time to record podcasts, book photoshoots and anything else they would be able to utilize that space for.