Today we had the ground breaking ceremony for Culver Garden Court. As you can see in the picture, actual ground breaking occurred over a week ago and we already half completed rough grading and have the building pad in place. There was a pretty good turnout including dignitaries from Culver and Plymouth as well as a representative from Congressman Joe Donnelly’s office. I was pleased that Culver Council President Ginny Munroe attended along with Council Members Ralph Winters and Ed Pinder. The Culver Town Manager, Michael Doss, was there as well as the Culver Clerk Treasurer, Casey Howard.
Culver Garden Court, Inc. is a HUD 202 project. It is a 13 unit assisted living facility for senior citizens. It is sponsored by Garden Court, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation located in Plymouth which has worked to provide affordable housing to Marshall County residents for over 40 years. It will be the 7th Garden Court built by Easterday Construction. We have been working for years trying to find suitable property for a Garden Court in Culver and are extremely pleased that the Culver Town Council had the foresight to help with this project and that Wade and Claudia McGee chose to make property available for this project.
Our contract with Garden Court and HUD allows us 12 months for completion, but we will strive to complete work in the 9-10 month range. We will work to have the facility weathered in quickly which will allow us to proceed with interior finishes even in inclement weather conditions.
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Mark Your Calendar!
As you may be aware, Garden Court, Inc. was awarded a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a 13-unit residence for the elderly under the Section 202 Supportive Housing Program.
This new development will be known as the
Culver Garden Court
701 S. Main St., Culver, IN 46511
Please join us for the
Ground Breaking Ceremony
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011
Where: 701 S. Main St., Culver, IN 46511
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Rev. Ronald Liechty, President of Garden Court, Inc.
R.S.V.P. To: Jodi Gonce @ Real Estate Management Corporation
Phone: 574-935-3600
Culver Garden Court had a project closing yesterday at the HUD offices in Indianapolis. FINALLY!!! The closing for this project was similar to a closing on a house where the mortgage is finalized, the previous property owner receives a check and the ownership transfer is made. In addition to this, the HUD closing for this project included the finalization of contracts for the construction of the new Garden Court facility. I was back in the office about 4:30 yesterday afternoon and the first round of purchase orders were sent releasing the surveyor, excavator and concrete contractor to begin work.
HUD requires the project to break ground within 10 days. This should not be a problem at this time of year. Everyone has been waiting for this project to be released for months. There will be a separate ground breaking ceremony on April 8th at 2:00pm for anyone interested in attending. Odds are there will be actual construction going on in the background at that time too.
The project has a 12 month time line. We anticipate being out of the ground within a couple of months. We should be weathered in before winter allowing interior finishes to be completed regardless of the weather.
You can see a previous entry on Culver Garden Court here.
Last summer when we had a big wind storm come through Culver, the doors on what we call the North Drive were a casualty. (See picture at the right.) We have patched and repaired them for years, but this time the mortise & tenon connections were broken in multiple places. Their structural integrity was shot.
I tend to be sentimental and nostalgic about things at times and this was one of them. I had some difficulty making the decision to get rid of them, but cost and safety factored into the decision to remove the old doors and replace them with an overhead door.
This area of the building is unheated storage. It is mainly used to house our forklift and provide storage for deliveries before items received are transferred to the site for installation. The new door will serve the purpose adequately, but without the sense of history associated with the old doors.
Great Grandpa Easterday was always the pragmatist, so I don’t think he would be too concerned about the decision.
Marshall County Economic Development is pleased to announce that in partnership with the North Central Indiana Small Business Development Center, free, confidential, one-on-one business assistance will be available at our Plymouth office on Miller Drive once a month beginning Wednesday, March 23rd.
Individual appointments to meet with Alan Steele, ISBDC Business Advisor, will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. This opportunity is open to entrepreneurs considering starting a business and those new to business ownership. But it is important to note the wealth of information and support services that SBDC can provide to ANYONE making critical decisions about how to improve their small business – particularly useful for existing strong Marshall County businesses facing new challenges brought by the digital-global-information age!
See the range of services provided below and at the SBDC website at http://www.southbendbcg.com/ for more information on how SBDC can help you succeed in taking your business to the next level.