Princeton Stellar Communities projects progress despite delays, manager says

In Rice’s right hand was the original timeline from more than a year ago for the Stellar Communities projects; in his left, the updated timeline, with the red construction blocks pushed further into the present (or future).

“The reality is these projects take longer than expected,” Rice said. 

That’s also true for the $4 million Second Avenue extension west of town and the $3 million Lafayette Park Pool project. Catherine Puckett of HWC Engineering confirmed that the pool project’s completion date has been moved to July 1 due to weather delays.

“If we get better weather the next few weeks they may be able to get done quicker,” she stated.

Those projects are also progressing and should not be forgotten in the midst of the Stellar Communities projects, Rice said. 

“It’s still pretty remarkable by 2015, $20 million of work has been completed,” he finished. “It’s not every town of 10,000 people that you see these kinds of projects.”

Here’s an update on the Stellar Communities projects in Princeton:

Trails/Downtown Facades

The Downtown Facades are next for construction, Rice said. 

The grant application is anticipated to be submitted in May,  Debbie Bennett-Stearsman reported. Everything is on schedule at this time, she said. 

Originally, 29 building owners with 35 buildings expressed interest in participating. 

Currently there are 14 buildings and 19 owners involved, Architecture Trio’s Julie Zent said. 

Two buildings didn’t have a good structural analysis, Bennett-Stearsman explained.

“One (owner) was very understanding, the other wasn’t,” she said, adding that she expects at least one of the property owners to make structural improvements. 

Technically there are three buildings that didn’t work out, reported Bennett-Stearsman, counting one of Onsite OHS President Kyle Johnson’s buildings. “...But he had taken himself out far before we ever talked to him,” she said. 

Zent said while there were originally 38 buildings to consider, when Johnson opted out of the program declined further access to his buildings, only 22 buildings went through the structural analysis.

That cost the city about $54,000, Mayor Bob Hurst said.

Johnson is still privately completing or has completed building rehabilitation projects on or near the square including:

 •An investment of $165,000 at LeeAndrea’s Sweet Shop at 126 W. State St.

• $270,000 in The Palace Restaurant at 124 W. State St.

• $220,000 in Onsite OHS at 101 N. Hart St.

• $140,000 in CAPE at 115 N. Prince St.

• $183,000 at 121 N. Hart St.’s location of Healthcare on the Square

• $223,000 worth of investments in 113 W. Broadway’s Sweet Shop and Restaurant

• $94,000 in Itz a Wrap, located on 105 E. Broadway;

• $48,000 in 110 N. Main St., which houses Pass-Through Archery

• $950,000 investment in the former Greek’s Restaurant at 201 N. Hart St.

• $456,000 investment in the former Silver Spur building at 100 W. State St.   

Those investments have led to at least 63 jobs, according to information provided during the advisory committee meeting. 

Architecture Trio expects to finalize construction bidding documents in June with construction bidding to take place in July, construction work to begin in July and be completed by fall 2015.

The construction documents for Toyota Trail and Downtown Gateways (INDOT-funded Stellar projects) are 90 percent complete, Puckett said. 

The Princeton and Heritage Trail projects will have their preliminary field checks complete in mid-May.

The environmental documents have been taking longer than expected to get sorted out because of issues with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) but Puckett said she expected them to be complete soon. 

Design work is also underway for all the streetscape, trail and gateway projects, she said. 

The proposed construction letting date for Toyota Trail, Tiger Trail and the gateways is in December, with proposed construction letting dates for Heritage Trail and both phases of the streetscapes in March 2015. 

Eighty percent of the funding for the streetscapes is coming from INDOT ($3,220,496) with the remaining 20 percent ($805,124) match coming from the city of Princeton. 

Princeton Theatre and Community Center

Light demolition work has begun in the theater, Jonathan Young of Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects said. 

“We found a little bit of asbestos in the building,” Young said, “so they’re going to have to remove that before heavy demolition begins.”

(Best One Tires and Duke Energy are both pitching in $25,000 each, respectively, to the local match, in addition to Toyota, Princeton and Vectren. That makes the total local match $270,876.)

Construction completion is expected to be in spring 2015. Update meetings for the theater are also held every other week

Bicentennial Park

Bicentennial Park is on schedule, Bennett-Stearsman said. 

Due to rain, some work had to wait this week, VPS Architecture architect Sarah Schuler said. 

Aug. 15 is the substantial completion date, with final completion still set for the beginning of September. 

German American Bank is adding $15,000 to the local match, along with Alliance Coal’s addition of $2,000. When combined with city money, that creates a local match of $518,029. 

Progress meetings for Bicentennial Park are held every other week.

Princeton Cottages 

Construction for the senior housing apartments is continuingand is halfway complete, Rice said. Gilette Construction of Indianapolis is the general contractor; construction of the four one-bedroom apartments and 32 two-bedroom apartments is expected to be complete this fall.

“It’s going really well,” Puckett said.