Published on July 24th, 2020
By Hailey Dixon hdixon@themercury.com
Staff photo by Rafael Garcia
The Community House renovation project is expected to wrap up by spring 2021.
“Most of the early demo has been completed, asbestos mitigation has started and some of the initial framing and bracing is underway,” said Tyler Holloman, a project partner, in a Thursday email to The Mercury.
Holloman’s company, Frontier Property Management, is serving as the building’s property manager upon completion. Officials said the project is coming along nicely.
“It’s exciting to see so much progress happening, and we are looking forward to sharing more as construction progresses,” Holloman said.
BHS Construction is doing the construction work, Holloman said. Plans for the building, built in 1917, involve turning the space into offices and residences, including lofts. Anderson Knight is the design team.
“We’ve taken care to ensure historical features will be saved to preserve the integrity of the building and the rebuild is well underway,” Holloman said.
Pre-leasing is expected to begin in January, Holloman said.
Ben Burton of Switchgrass Development purchased the property for $1 from the city earlier this year, and he agreed to keeping the property on national and state registers of historic places.
The Manhattan City Commission agreed to the sale after city administrators said the city would have to spend at least $2 million to renovate the building.
The budget for the project is around $3 million, officials said.
