Weather slows construction
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on March 9, 2014 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Goshen Medical Center on U.S. 70 in Rosewood is one of the many new construction sites around Wayne County.
mcaulder@newsargus.com
Despite an unusually rainy July, two major winter storms and ice overnight Monday construction is moving ahead, mostly on schedule, for a host of new businesses in Goldsboro.
"We are about a week behind schedule," said Dean Smith, the superintendent in charge of renovating the old Ryan's Family Steak House on Berkeley Boulevard into a Texas Roadhouse. "Once we get inside to do the flooring, we'll make it up."
"We have the metal for the roof coming next week and once we do that and finish the entrance it will be looking real good," Smith said. "I'll be turning it over May 5 regardless so I had better be done."
The roadhouse plans to open May 26.
Texas Roadhouse will be open for dinner during the week and lunch and dinner on the weekends.
The chain has more than 400 locations in 48 states, including Alaska.
On average, each location seats more than 280 customers.
Steaks account for almost half of its menu, but the restaurant also serves burgers, sandwiches, pork, chicken and seafood as well as vegetarian offerings.
A couple doors down, work is continuing on the new Mattress Firm.
"We lost about three weeks to a month of work due to the weather," Site Superintendent Bill Irving said. "It's been so cold. You can't lay brick when it's cold."
Irving expects the project to be finished toward the end of April.
"Once we do our part, it takes them a couple weeks to move their mattresses and stuff in here," Irving said.
Work is also moving ahead on the new Holiday Inn Express.
"We are finishing up the top and working our way down," site superintendent R.B. Mixson said. "We should be done in a couple of months."
The 92-room hotel off of Sunburst Drive is expected to open this summer.
"It's gonna be a nice hotel, I can tell you that," Mixson said. "The weather has hurt us a lot. People don't come to work because of the snow and the ice, so it's pushed us back. We could have been done by now if not for this weather."
The hotel will feature an indoor temperature-controlled pool.
Ground was broken last week on a project to build an extended stay Towne Place Suites Marriott hotel off of North Park Drive next to Ruby Tuesday.
The 98-room hotel will have refrigerators, kitchenettes, range tops and larger closets, BPR Properties President Birju Patel said.
Patel said the hotel is geared toward 5- to 12-night stays offering extra amenities over a conventional hotel.
For the next two months, mostly site preparation will be done before work begins on the building itself.
Patel said the hotel should be open in April or May of next year.
"It should take us about a year for construction," he said.
Once open, Patel expects the hotel to bring about 35 full-time and part-time jobs to the area.
In Rosewood, construction is under way on a Goshen Medical Center set to be completed in August, site superintendent Hilario Saldibar said.
The center will have three buildings including a dental clinic.