Mark July 2 on your calendar. That’s the day Clarkesville City Council is supposed to issue a “Notice to Proceed” for restoration work on two of the fire-damaged buildings on the square but first, they need to pick one of three contractors who want the job.
Leaders used the city website to issue a call for “Guaranteed Fixed Price Design-Build Delivery, Request for Qualifications/Proposals” back on May 8. According to City Manager Barbara Kesler, “656 people looked at it online and 140 downloaded the Request for Qualifications.”
While the idea of restoring the Clarkesville square generated a great deal of interest, the particulars of the $2.6 million project narrowed the field down to just three contractors who feel up to the task.
Clarkesville Request for Qualifications Respondents |
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| Blake Rainwater & Associates* | Clarkesville, Georgia |
| BM&K Construction and Engineering | Braselton, Georgia |
| John W. Spratlin & Son | Lincolnton, Georgia |
*Blake Rainwater handled the initial clean-up of the damaged buildings.
Representatives from all three companies toured the damaged buildings on Friday with Kesler, Kirby Glaze from Public Private Partnership Project Management (4PM) and Brian LaBrie of LaBrie Consulting. 4PM is the city’s consultant on the project while LaBrie is working to secure Historic Tax Credits to help pay for restoration.
The tour began with the first two buildings slated for restoration, the one on the end at E. Water Street and the former Sharky’s Restaurant next door. “The idea is to have a rolling restoration,” says Kirby Glaze. “These buildings will come on line first and the remaining buildings would follow right behind.”
The first building has no visible fire damage inside but you can see where the ceiling tiles suffered water damage from firefighters’ efforts to contain the fire in March 2014. The floor is dirty but seems solid and the air is just a bit musty.
“It’s in real good shape,” says Johnny Spratlin before adding, “compared to some places I’ve worked on.” Spratlin’s family business, based in Lincoln County, does historic restoration projects around the state. “We’ve done a lot of this stuff, historic downtowns, courthouses, train depots.”
“We want to put the facades of the building back as historically accurate as possible,” explains Glaze. “There may also be a few interior features that we want to retain but we believe the historic perseveration aspect will be relatively easy to comply with.”
While both buildings are old – Sharky’s built in the 20s, its neighbor following in the 40s – they were always designed for commercial use. According to Glaze, “They’re big boxes today, they were big boxes when they were built and they’ll be big boxes when we finish with them. It’s not like we’re having to deal with a lot of design elements that we’ve got to keep for historic preservation.”
The smoke smell inside Sharky’s is a bit more obvious as is the water damage to the hardwood floor which rises and sags across the length of what was the restaurant and bar area. In the kitchen, Glaze and Kesler explain that they hope to save some of the surviving equipment for future restaurant tenants.
With flashlights and the screens of cellphones to show the way, the group heads downstairs into Sharky’s unlit basement. The smoke smell is much stronger, almost a physical presence in the dark. “We’re looking for the design teams to come up with ways that the basement spaces can be made into productive useable space,” says Glaze.
Creating new basement retail space is key to the City’s plan to use money from renters to help pay down the debt on the project. They want the three contractor’s design teams to come up with ways to create secondary storefronts along the back alley.
Like the others, Hunter Bicknell of BM&K has experience bringing old buildings back into use. He recently finished work on an historic department store building in Braselton where his company is headquartered. He sees the potential in Clarkesville, “I think it could be really nice,” he says. “It’ll take a lot of work and it’ll be expensive.”
Bicknell, Rainwater, and Spratlin are initially bidding on just the first two buildings but, if the city likes the chosen contractor’s work, Glaze says the option is there for a much larger job. “We’re looking at all four of the buildings even though this initial pricing proposal will be focused only on the first two. If they choose, the city can move from phase one to phase two without repeating the RFQ/RFP process.”
There is nothing left beyond the door to the old Parker’s storefront. A skeleton of crisscrossed beams helps support the buildings on either side. The contractors take turns looking through the door into the blank space beyond before heading further down the block to what was Natalie Janes.
Again, there are few signs of fire in this building just the lingering ghosts of smoke and water damage. “More than likely I think a restaurant will want to occupy this space when it’s done,” Kesler says. “It gets a lot of foot traffic.”
If the historic tax credits, grants and low interest loans the city is seeking to pay for the project all come through, Glaze estimates that 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.
After the tour, each of the contractors returned home to work up their qualifications documentation. They don’t have much time to make their case. Kesler and City Council will score the RFQ responses on May 27.
Once leaders make sure all three companies are up to the job, each will begin work on their actual design proposals and cost estimates. Those are due on June 17. Glaze believes at least one of the companies will have just what the city needs, “We know any of the three are quite capable.”
After council members decide which bid they like best, they’ll negotiate a contract and issue a “Notice to Proceed” on July 2.
