Saturday, December 14, 2024
Exciting upgrades are coming to the Granbury Square Plaza — a major historical landmark that has been serving the community for more than a decade.
The Granbury City Council unanimously selected a contractor to lead the plaza’s roof replacement project in the amount of $252,090 during a regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 19.
Granbury Historic Properties Corporation — a subcomponent of the city for historic preservation — first recommended that the plaza undergo a roof replacement after the city acquired the building in June.
"It was kind of like a three-legged stool of why we bought it,” City Manager Chris Coffman said in a previous Hood County News article. “Historic preservation (is one). It’s the front door to our historic square and it’s an old building that needs to be preserved.”
Since 2009, the plaza has served as an iconic location for the city by providing retail and office space for businesses, as well as an outdoor area for events like birthday parties, weddings, bands and other intimate gatherings.
Located at 201 E. Pearl St., where First United Methodist Church used to be, the plaza is also home to Visit Granbury, whose economic benefits have played a large role in preserving the historic building.
“Visit Granbury’s there and they're our shining marketing tool for the city. We want to keep them front and center," Coffman previously said. “The building's pretty much rented right now, but as tenants churn through, there's a need for temporary office space for these companies that we're trying to attract to come to town to create jobs. They need temporary office space until they are able to get their building built.”
Coffman said the goal is to turn the plaza into a “shining star” — something that attracts tourists to Granbury when they first pull into town and see it.
"It's really in a demise condition right now,” he had said. “We're working to repair the air conditioning, the roofing, the painting, and some structural woodwork needs to be taken care of on that old plaza area itself, where the wood’s rotted. It doesn‘t give us a good look, so we want to clean it up and make it really attractive.”
With the roof being one of the first projects to restore the plaza, the city quickly opened for bids Oct. 24 and received eight proposals from contractors.
After reviewing the bids, the city’s five-member staff team evaluated the submittals and narrowed it down to the top three contractors: CS Advantage, Streamline Roofing and Tryggr Roofing.
During the Granbury City Council meeting Nov. 19, Deputy City Manager Michael Ross told the council that staff interviewed all three companies and recommended Streamline Roofing for the bid in the amount of $229,173.40.
“Staff and the GHP also recommend approving a 10% contingency to cover any unforeseen roofing-related issues that might arise as the project progresses on these historic buildings,” Ross explained. “The total expenditure amount being requested this evening is $253,090.”
He noted that both Streamline and Tryggr were good contractors, had great references and were considered “high quality.” However, Ross added that while Tryggr had more experience, the price was the guiding factor — which led to the city recommending Streamline for the project.
“We came in lower than we had originally estimated,” Ross added. “We were thinking around $300,000 for the project, but the $229,000 plus the 10% for contingency, I’m pretty pleased.”
According to Ross, the project will not negatively impact the current tenants in the plaza. Road closures are also not expected to take place around the area during construction.
"The other good thing about the low bid is they were also the fastest,” he added. “They put five days (for completion), which some don't believe is possible, but even if it takes 10 days, we're thrilled at the end of this, because they're going to mobilize and have crews working on all three (buildings) simultaneously.”
Coffman added that the crew is also willing to work with the city, meaning construction will not interfere with any weekend festivals or events.
As for the future of the plaza, Coffman said in a previous council meeting that the city has talked about potentially expanding the current parking lot and has also envisioned creating an economic development incubator system to help provide resources and services to new and growing businesses.
“There would be workspace available for new startup businesses through grants and other things to help fund that to get them up and going,” he previously said. “We don't have the vacancy to start that incubator program yet, but that's kind of what we're doing.”
The council previously approved a budget totaling $600,000 to fund the improvements to the Granbury Square Plaza, including roof replacements, parking lot overlay and miscellaneous other minor repairs and improvements, as approved by the GHP.
For more information about Granbury Square Plaza or for booking details, go online to VisitGranbury.com.
