Millions flow for work in community

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Contractors and their heavy machinery have descended uponBrookhaven’s business and residential areas, as mounds of dirt andtruckloads of material are made ready for several construction andrenovation projects in the community.

The estimated value of various projects under way in the area isalmost $19 million, according to officials involved in thework.

City Building Inspector Chip Gennaro has had a wild week,performing 16 site inspections on Monday alone, as he keeps pacewith six main building projects. Five of those are beingconstructed on Brookway Boulevard and total more than $3.5million.

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The largest of the six is Brookhaven Plaza, a $2 million stripmall currently under construction at 973 Brookway Blvd.

Gennaro said the plaza, being built by Ham Contractors Inc., ofTylertown, will be constructed with two large buildings, measuring38,000 square feet and 12,000 square feet, which will be dividedinto smaller shops as renting businesses require. No businesseshave reserved space in the forthcoming plaza thus far.

Directly in front of the plaza will be Arby’s, one of tworestaurants planning to build near Interstate 55. The $585,000 fastfood restaurant, being built by Southern Pre-Engineered of Purvis,will sit between Wendy’s and the BP gas station.

On the other side of the boulevard, Waffle House Inc. isplanning to spend $298,914 to bring the more than 50-year-oldbreakfast parlor to Brookhaven at 954 Brookway Blvd., adjacent toMcDonald’s in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

An existing building currently receiving upgrades is the Boysand Girls Club of Lincoln County. The old structure at 213 SouthSecond St. is being fitted with $285,000 worth of renovations,including a new roof, by Scarbrough Construction from Roxie. Theproject was approved in December by the Lincoln County Board ofSupervisors after county officials obtained a federal grant to fundthe project.

Although Brookhaven is a city of many banks, there is apparentlyroom for one more.

Paul Jackson and Son Inc., has signed a contract for a $252,000project to construct the Bank of Franklin on the southwest cornerof the intersection of Brookway Boulevard and Highway 51. Jackson’scompany will also construct a temporary building from which thebank will operate while the main structure is being built.

Stocking the home or office will be easier once Aaron RentsInc., a furniture and appliance rental and retail store, opens itsnew location at 964 Brookway Blvd. Reid Metal Erectors of Jayess isconstructing the $120,000 building.

The construction value of these six projects adds up to$3,540,914, and the results of the expenditures will begin to showsoon for the two restaurants on the list.

“There’s no exact time frame, but I assume Arby’s and WaffleHouse should go fairly quick,” Gennaro said. “They’re fairly smallbuildings, and Waffle House’s buildings are all exactly alike.”

While the public projects will be immediately noticeable, thereare countless other forms of construction and renovation currentlyunder way in the residential market. While the national lull in newhome construction continues, Gennaro noted that the dip has notstopped home improvements.

“There’s a decent amount of residential stuff going on for thistime of year,” Gennaro said. “It’s mostly just people remodelingtheir houses, but it’s a good bit. It’s usually kind of slow thistime of year, with the weather like it is.”

There are also several more projects, ongoing and upcoming, thatwill increase the city construction totals. The board ofsupervisors is currently examining options for re-roofing theLincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library and the Lincoln CountyBoard of Education is gathering estimates to re-roof its mainoffice.

Of course, Rod Cooke Construction Inc., of Mobile, Ala., is inthe midst of a project with a budget that doubles that of the jobsin the city. The company is constructing the new wing of King’sDaughters Medical Center, a $9.6 million project that is scheduledfor completion by mid-March.

The entire KDMC project should be completed by the end of theyear.

The combination of all the work constitutes a miniature boom toBrookhaven, although Steve Moreton, Brookhaven Director of PublicWorks, said the progress is not uncommon.

“We’ve had big jobs in the past, and hopefully all thisconstruction is just a sign of things to come,” he said.

Moreton said the progress is lagging slightly, but should swinginto full speed once the weather allows.

Linbrook Business Park, the community’s industrial-attractinghaven, is being developed to keep up with the boom and create aboom of its own. Cliff Brumfield, executive vice-president of theBrookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, said $5.8 millionworth of improvements are on the table for the park.

Approximately $3.6 million is being spent to engineer 8,000linear feet of infrastructure in the park, including new roads andwater and sewer lines that will connect with the city’s existinglines. The remaining $2.2 million is being put toward a 1,200-footwater well, where a 500-gallon per minute pump will extract thewater into a new 1 million-gallon elevated storage tank.

Brumfield said the new tank would supplement the city’s existingsanitary water supply, a connection that should increase waterpressure for the city’s residents.

“Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, when our hotels were at fullcapacity, folks in Halbert Heights and along the boulevardexperienced a decrease in water pressure,” he said. “This new deepwater well and storage tank will remedy that situation.”

The Linbrook work, combined with the construction projectsstretched across Brookway Boulevard, will begin giving back to thecity upon completion. Brumfield said the new projects might alsobeget more new projects.

“We’ll experience a gain in sales tax collections due to thisconstruction,” Brumfield said. “Any time you have this frequency ofnew construction in a community of our size, it shows a vote ofconfidence from those investing in these new projects. We arehoping that this recent surge in new construction will bring aboutmore of the same.”

Brumfield also said construction experienced in Brookhaven wouldprovide an intangible benefit to the community – confidence.

“These projects should also be a good morale booster for localcitizens,” he said. “When you consider the negative reports we hearregarding the national economy, the decline of many communities dueto foreclosures and out-migration, it speaks well for Brookhavenand Lincoln County that we’ve been able to grow despite thesetrends.”