Breaking out the gold shovels. Left to right, Beth Barrett (Congressman Donnelly's representative), Ralph Winters (Councilman), Ed Pinder (Councilman), Ronald Liechty (Garden Court President), Casey Howard (Clerk Treasurer), Ginny Munroe (Council President), Kevin Berger (Easterday Construction) – Picture by Pam Fisher
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.
Friday was the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the LaPaz Garden Court. It’s always a great thing to go back and see how the facilities have been decorated, see the residents that have taken rooms and hear from all of those involved. Dr. Ronald Liechty served as Master of Ceremony and as always, made everyone feel good about the work that it took to bring the project to completion.
We completed work on LaPaz Garden Court in mid-October and it is already 2/3rds full. There was actually another resident signing up while the open house was in progress!
We were pleased that the H.U.D. representative for this job attended the ceremony. This is the first time this has happened. We were all pleased that she also had the opportunity to see the good that Garden Court has been able to do. This would not be possible with out the grants from H.U.D.
LaPaz Garden Court is the 6th Garden Court project that Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has partnered with Garden Court, Inc. to complete. While we have also worked on several of their other projects, we have completed six projects from start to finish in Argos, Bourbon, Knox, Plymouth, Mentone and now LaPaz. We hope to be starting out 7th project with them, Culver Garden Court, within the next few weeks.
All of us at Easterday Construction are proud of our association with Garden Court, Inc. and we hope to continue our partnership into the future.