Clarkesville City Council picked a contractor Monday night and leaders expect work to begin on the fire-damaged downtown buildings by early next month.
They chose Clarkesville-based Blake Rainwater & Associates to fix two of the burned structures. The cost looks to be slightly higher than the city was expecting but still should, with the right mix of financing, allow the town to recoup the cost through rent or through the sale of the restored buildings.
Rainwater is already familiar with the project having contracted with the city early this year to stabilize what remains of the damaged buildings. The contractor worked with Croft and Associates Architects from Kennesaw to develop their proposal.
The city’s consultant, Public Private Partnership Project Management (4PM), helped choose the final proposal and will oversee work on the project. Kirby Glaze of 4PM says, in the end, the process came down to a literal tie between Rainwater and Lincolnton-based John Spratlin & Son contractors. The two were ranked equally on the basis of qualifications, pricing and the bonus points awarded for local economic impact. “I’ve seen them close but I’ve never had a tie before,” says Glaze. “This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen them tie in the scoring.”
Glaze says he gave the edge to Rainwater due to a couple of factors “(They) appeared to have a better understanding of the community’s objectives and goals with respect to the project and space.” They also offered the more detailed concept of the two. Rainwater also gave the more detailed pricing proposal according to Glaze.
Mayor Terry Green tells Now Habersham that he’s happy the process ended up the way it did, “It turned out to be a local contractor that was in the running and that’s great. He (Rainwater) had a great design.”
Starting on the End
Rainwater’s proposal covers just two of the buildings that suffered damage in the March 2014 fire, the former Sharky’s and the old Ramsey’s grocery store on the E. Water Street end of the square, “The idea is to have a rolling restoration,” says Glaze. “These buildings will come online first and the remaining buildings would follow right behind.”
Rainwater also now has a leg up in getting the contract to restore the rest of the square when that part of the project is ready for proposals. “We’re looking at all four of the buildings even though this initial pricing proposal will be focused only on the first two,” Glaze explains. “If they choose, the city can move from phase one to phase two without repeating the RFQ/RFP process.”
Working around Back
One of the challenges the city presented to contractors was to transform the buildings’ basements, “We’re looking for the design teams to come up with ways that the basement spaces can be made into productive usable space,” Glaze explained earlier in the process.
In addition to turning basements into extra retail space the city wants the backsides of the buildings to become secondary storefronts. With entrances off the alley, additional signage and lighting.
Paying for the Work
Rainwater’s proposal came in at $833,792.50 for option 1 and $873,820.00 for option 2. The difference in the two prices is the cost of installing an elevator in the Ramsey’s building to make the basement retail spaces easier to access and more attractive to potential tenants. He also included options for adding more windows to the E. Water Street side of the building.
Glaze says Rainwater’s proposed price is about 4% higher than what they hoped to pay for this first phase of the restoration but is well within the range they initially had in mind.
The city is applying for Historic Tax Credits to pay for part of the work but Clarkesville City Manager Barbara Kesler is also cobbling together an alternative financing mix that includes low-interest loans and redevelopment grants from state and federal sources to pay for the first two buildings right away.
Specifically, the city is seeking money from the Georgia Downtown Development Revolving Loan Fund, the Georgia Cities Foundation and the USDA Rural Business Development Grant. The city also secured a $710,000 line of credit from South State Bank. “Regardless of what cash flow is, we’ve got a line of credit there if we need it,” Kesler explains. “We may never need penny of it but it’s there if we do.”
The total cost of fixing up all the damaged buildings is estimated to be $2.6 million. If the historic tax credits, grants and low interest loans all come through, 4PM estimates that all the downtown buildings owned by the city can bring in $180,336 in rent annually. Kesler says that estimate is conservative and, if it holds, the city could easily make the annual payments on the renovation debt and still see an annual profit of $44,843.
When will they Start?
Glaze says due to a prolonged interview process with the final two contractors, they are currently two weeks behind where they’d hoped to be in their schedule. He now expects to have a “design/build” contract with Rainwater and Associates ready for City Council to sign one week from Thursday. Construction could begin in early August.
Despite the delay, Glaze and Mayor Greene say they expect the buildings will be ready for tenants before the first of the year.
