The company overseeing the development of the Besse Hotel, in downtown Pittsburg, have said they are 75 percent complete with the project.
According to Sue Young, construction manager with Garrison Development Company, the firm overseeing the redevelopment project, crews are awaiting specialty windows for the building before completion.
“The main thing is that we are waiting on the windows, which we are hoping will be shipped out by the end of the week,” Young said.
Contractors will bring in additional crews to install the windows once they arrive on-site at Fourth and Locust. Young said that, after the windows are installed, brand-new carpet and appliances will be placed in the individual apartments.
Last week, This past Friday, workers with CDL Electric Company hung giant leasing banners on the structure’s east and west facing walls. The project is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by mid to late October of 2010.
When completed, the former hotel will include 46 rental units, including 15 one-bedroom apartments; 29 two-bedroom apartments and two, three-bedroom apartments.
“The cooperation of everyone — the city, the local contractors and workers and the community — kept this project moving forward and on schedule,” said John Wygoski, manager of Construction Dynamics, a Nebraska-based firm overseeing the reconstruction of the Besse Hotel.
Now, Young said crews are finishing up plumbing for the building and she said, “As soon as the windows are in, everything else will fall right into place.”
Pittsburg interim City Manager John Van Gorden said that the city is glad to see the Besse Hotel project moving forward.
“I think we’re very pleased,” Van Gorden said. “As far as we’re concerned, this project has gone very well.”
In addition to the interior of the building, crews will also install a gated parking lot and entry systems at the end of the construction project.
“It will be a secure parking lot because you will need a fob to access it,” Young said. “The primary entrance to the building will have a telephone entry system.”
Young said that the entry system includes a phone, located on the outside of the building, will ring an individual in the building and the person in the building will have to allow access to outside individuals after business hours.
Overall, the construction is “slightly behind” schedule because of the window delivery, Young said.
“We have a lot of the materials, but they are not in yet,” Young said.
