The Union Station Lofts development is being completed quicker than anticipated. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Construction on the Union Station Lofts is proceeding quickly, so the developer is looking to receive project funding a little quicker.

At a Warsaw Redevelopment Commission meeting on Monday, Sept. 8, the board was presented with an amendment to the original distribution schedule with OrthoWorx.

Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner explained, “So our agreement with OrthoWorx for the Union Station Lofts project, we had a payment schedule – a distribution schedule – as part of the agreement. We would like to amend that. That project is moving along pretty quickly, and they would like to accelerate those payments.”

In talks between Skinner, OrthoWorx and the contractor, Skinner said they didn’t see an issue with the payments being made sooner. Rebar Development is the project developer.

“So this just amends that distribution schedule so that they would have access to the funds at a quicker pace,” Skinner told the commission. “It originally was set up on a monthly basis.”

Commission President George Clemens said it sure looks like it’s moving along quickly. Skinner agreed it’s moving along really quickly and the outside will be “buttoned up and done before the end of this year” and then it’ll all be interior work to be completed. The commission approved the amendment to the distribution schedule.

The amendment states OrthoWorx at the time of the amendment has disbursed $600,000 to the developer identified by the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission through the terms in the original distribution schedule. The amendment modifies the original distribution schedule to accelerate the release of funds to the developer to support timely project execution and address funding needs of the developer. OrthoWorx and the commission agree to an additional disbursement of $700,000 upon execution of the amended agreement that will be based on pay applications received from the developer that have occurred since the original date of the agreement of May 5. The pay applications must be made up of invoices that have not already been submitted for previous disbursements, the amendment states.

OrthoWorx will retain $100,000 of total funds from the initial progress payments to the developer until substantial completion of the project. The release of these retained funds is contingent upon satisfactory completion of all work and submission of evidence by the commission that the project has met their requirements for the agreed-upon retainage to also be released. The four-story building – located on the site of the former Gatke Corp. manufacturing facility – will include 80 apartments, according to the developer back in May. There will be a work-from-home center, rooftop terrace, a resident café, fitness center, indoor bike storage, pet spa and trailhead. There also will be about 1,000 square feet of commercial studios designed for smaller, local businesses. The total project is around $20 million with the bulk of that coming from the developer.

In other business, three items regarding Petro Drive came up before the Redevelopment Commission and were approved. The first was a change order for the Petro Drive watermain extension, decreasing the cost of the contract with G & G Hauling & Excavating Inc. by $4,149.78 from $84,702 to $80,552.22. The second was a contract between Pulver Asphalt Paving Inc. and the city of Warsaw to pave the Petro Drive roadway extension. Skinner said they opened the bids and awarded the project at their last meeting. The contract is for a total of $231,763.

In addition to awarding the contract, the commission approved the third item, which was the notice for Pulver to proceed. The work is expected to be completed yet this year, Skinner said. Commission Member Joe Thallemer asked if the price of asphalt has been holding the last couple years or if it’s come down a bit.

City Engineer Aaron Ott responded, “This year, we’ve seen it come down for most of our paving and CCMG projects, so, yeah, it’s down 10 to 20% maybe from what we were paying before this year.”

He said he thought they were able to produce the asphalt at a little better cost, and there’s more competition locally for the paving work. Unfortunately, Skinner said, labor costs have not come down.

“So we might be saving some money on the asphalt prices, but labor costs are still pretty high,” he stated.

The last thing the commission dealt with Monday was claims, all of which were approved. They included $1,415.23 for NIPSCO for the former Marsh building; $399.73, Indiana American Water, for the former Marsh building; $6.79, Quill, office supplies; $10,642.85, Warsaw Community Development Inc., agreement payment; $300, Kosciusko Development Inc., office space for PeekMed; $900, Dawson Appraisal, for appraisal of the “Polk” parking lot; $6,926.70, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, for legal services for Marsh and Autocam projects; $96,722.35, Robinson Construction Inc., for the public works building; $76,295.88, Phend & Brown Inc., for the turn lane on CR 200N; $2,412.50, Engineering Resources, for the engineering services of the CR 200N project; $11,548.55, G & G Hauling & Excavating Inc., for the Petro Drive watermain extension; $8,055.22, G& G Hauling & Excavating Inc., for the Petro Drive watermain extension; $2,270, A & Z Engineering LLC, for the CR 200N and Husky Trail engineering work; $42,000, Westhill Development, for the monthly payment on the Warsaw Tech Park shell building; and $5,100, Baker Tilly, for the Autocam tech park project.