New city construction now back on schedule
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on April 21, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Rakeem Burroughs, left, and Steven Watson lay porcelain tile in the lobby of the new Holiday Inn Express under construction on Sunburst Drive. The hotel is one of several projects in the works and slated for completion this spring and summer.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Work is continuing on the Texas Roadhouse on Berkeley Boulevard. The restaurant is set to open June 30.
Warmer, drier weather has spurred construction in Goldsboro after a tough winter of ice and snow held up work.
At the Holiday Inn Express, under construction on Sunburst Drive since July, work on the exterior of the building is finishing up. The hotel is expected to open in the next couple of months.
The majority of the work now is inside the hotel, with a host of craftsmen on each floor trying to get the hallways, entryways and rooms ready for the next step.
The four-story hotel will have 92 rooms with a mix of singles, doubles and suites.
"When it's done, it's gonna be a nice hotel," site superintendent R.B. Mixson said. "It's gonna be the nicest hotel in Goldsboro when it's finished."
Mixson works for Palmetto Design Associates out of West Columbia, S.C.
He has been building hotels for 34 years and has more than 100 under his belt.
"It takes most contractors 15, 16 or 18 months to finish a building this size, but I can get these things up in about 12 months," Mixson said. "We just keep moving along."
On Wednesday, workers were laying tile for the lobby of the hotel on the ground floor, but all across the hotel others were fitting lighting fixtures, laying carpet and doing other jobs to get the hotel finished.
Most of the inspections have been completed, with the elevator still waiting for state approval.
"That's about the last thing to go," Mixson said. "The state wants everything done before they will give you the inspection. The flooring outside the elevator, the tile inside, the walls and the area around it. I have climbed these stairs 1,000 times, and I can't wait for that elevator to be inspected."
The cold snap felt in the later part of the week was not slowing down construction at the site, though it did make the work a little less comfortable.
"I took all of my winter coats home last week, but I needed them this week," Mixson said.
At the new Texas Roadhouse, going up in the old Ryan's Family Steak House location on Berkeley Boulevard, exterior work is all but finished as well.
The site will be released from Kelley Construction to the owners May 5. The restaurant will open June 30, if all goes well, site superintendent, Dean Smith said.
The last exterior work to be done is hanging up the signs and resurfacing the parking lot and striping it.
"I'm getting my landscaping finished up and moving equipment out to resurface the lot," Smith said. "Now we are mostly inside finishing up things. It's going to be real nice when we finish."
The restaurant will seat 365 people and offer a private room for parties and has a separate bar area with a central bar and surrounding seating.
"It's gonna be a nice bar -- finished oak wood for the bar," Smith said.
By the waiting area, patrons will be able to see chefs and bakers cooking the meat and baking bread.
"We can seat 40 here in the waiting area and have benches outside too," he said. "This is going to be a popular place, but it's a big place."
Smith will stick around until the opening after the building is released to the owners, but he doesn't mind, he gets free food.
"I do like the food here," he said. "I like the food a lot. It's about the best steakhouse out there."
Work on the Mattress Firm on Berkeley Boulevard is nearing completion, with the store set to open in mid-May, site superintendent Bill Irving said.
Construction fell behind two weeks during the wintery weather, but with the exterior finished, work is moving ahead quickly, he said.
The cold weather held Irving and his crew back from laying brick, putting them behind schedule.