Ryan Rush, Mosaic’s Director of Construction and Property Management says they are on schedule with the massive renovation project.
“We’re coming along nicely,” Rush said “A lot of the floor is being laid, the bank lobby is currently getting the marble in it.”
“It’s looking like we’ll have a completion date around the end of April, so we’ll start to occupy, hopefully in May, getting furniture in and getting people moved down here,” he said.
On Friday, Rush and others hosted a media tour of the renovation in progress. Workers were installing some huge exterior windows offering some spectacular views. Other crews were cutting out old concrete and laying new marble on the first two floors of the building. Extensive renovation continues on the third, fourth and fifth floors.
Much of the Beaux-Arts detailing and historic artifacts remains intact. Field Manager Dave Berthiaume of the construction management firm CPM says there are seven vaults, including a vault-within-a-vault in the former bank building. The largest of these vaults will eventually become a dining area in the “caregivers area” in the basement. Berthiaume says each of the building’s six stories will require the installation of 50,000 feet of networking cable, not to mention extensive repairs and electrical rewiring.
The facility was built in 1889. The six story, rectangular brick building was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It will house the business arm of the hospital.
“A lot of the business functions, financing, corporate services will be down here, and a couple of call centers will be down here,” Rush said.
A surface parking lot bought by Mosaic is complete and in use. Construction continues on the retail center and parking garage being erected at 8th and Felix.
Rush says that project appears to be on schedule as well.
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to have that in by the end of 2017, the parking itself,” he said. He was not ready to announce who will occupy the retail space. The initial announcements suggested that a grocery store was being sought.
“Nobody to be named yet, but we’re definitely trying to weigh of all our options, and get a good person for the community down here to help revitalize the area.”