Development Beat: Renovation Roundup

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Meredith College

Johnson Hall at Meredith College

Friday, February 5, 2016

Three of the four biggest renovation projects of last week are set to take place on the lovely campus of Meredith College on Hillsborough Street.

Interestingly, the three projects are being done by two separate contractors. Ammons Building Corporation is listed as the general contractor for a $431,000 vestibule entry addition at Johnson Hall, and a $431,000 alteration, also at Johnson Hall.

Hutchins Construction Inc., meanwhile, was permitted for a $145,000 phase two bathroom alteration job at … Johnson Hall. Interestingly enough, it appears as if both general contractors are using the same subcontractors — Harris Brothers for the electrical work, Piedmont Service Group for the mechanical and Raleigh Plumbing & Heating for the plumbing.

Johnson Hall at Meredith College

Meredith College

Johnson Hall at Meredith College

Depending on the job and the way the general contractor operates, it is, well, generally the subcontractors who end up doing most of the labor aspects of a given project, while a GC acts as more of a project manager to a certain extent. So while my initial concept of two rival contractors working on a building that’s on the campus of an all-girl’s college sounds like the perfect recipe for an 80s high jinks movie… it doesn’t really pan out in real life. Like most of my ideas.

I was thinking the workers would be playing Home Alone-style pranks on each other; on any given day a guy could be getting a bucket of paint dumped on his head, or maybe locked in a port-a-potty and thrown down a hill or even wind up shot in the leg with a nail gun, ha-ha, all while Meredith College co-eds looked on and giggled. Oh well.

The other job to fall in the top four from last week, the only one not related to Meredith College, was an interior alteration job for Aesthetics by Eileen, which will be located at 5450 Munford Drive off Glenwood near the Townridge shopping center.

Eileen Slutsky RN, BSN, CANS

Aesthetics By Eileen

Eileen Slutsky RN, BSN, CANS

Aesthetics by Eileen is a laser and skin care center currently operating out of an office on Cerny Street out in Brier Creek, about seven miles from the new location. The $220,000 renovation is being handled by Sigmon Construction.

Aside from those jobs… not much else happened. As anyone who’s been reading the column this week may have surmised, last week was a bit slow in terms of permits issued.

However, there was a $39,5550 interior renovation permitted for the Dominos at 3677 New Bern Avenue, which will be handled by CB Sawyer & Associates. So that’s exciting. Although considering the interior of a Dominos is smaller than my living room, I imagine that $39k is going to stretch pretty far when it comes to fixing up the place. As a matter of fact, the square footage listed on the plans is 185. Small!

The Dominos in question

The Dominos in question

Finally, two apartment complexes had some minor renovations permitted: The Lynndale Apartments at 6205 North Hills Drive appears to be installing four new 14,140 square-foot washer-dryer facilities, but at a cost of only $4,380 per building. Seems awfully cheap; we’ll look into this. In the meantime, the contractor doing this apparently super-cheap work is THS National LLC.

The Lynndale Apartments, circa 1997

Wake County

The Lynndale Apartments, circa 1997

The Northside Apartments, located on the 2200 block of Bernard Street, are having some electrical, plumbing and HVAC work done; SBC Contracting received six permits valued at $25,572 each for this work at several different buildings in the complex.