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Ken Smith/Turnagain Times Improvements on Girdwood Place, downtown, are similar to those that will eventually encompass the entire Town Square. All four roads around the Square will be paved and feature sidewalks, landscaping and street lighting. |
By Aaron Selbig
Turnagain Times
While one development project in downtown Girdwood has fallen behind schedule, another appears in limbo.
In 2003, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens delivered to Girdwood a $10 million congressional earmark to be used for economic development. Part of the money is being used to pave Crow Creek Road, a project that is now underway, while the rest is in the hands of The Boutet Company, an Anchorage civil engineering firm.
The plan is to construct a Town Square in downtown Girdwood, a community park and gathering place bordered on four sides by Girdwood Place, Linblad Avenue, Hightower Road and Holmgren Place.
Todd Jacobson, project manager at The Boutet Company, admits that progress on the Town Square project hasn’t gone exactly as planned.
“It’s a little behind schedule,” he said. “We were hoping to start work at the beginning of this summer. Right now, we’re wrapping up the final design with the utility companies, trying to figure out who is going to pay for what. We’re still currently obtaining right-of-way and utility agreements. We’re close.”
Jacobson is currently working with a handful of local property owners on right-of-way issues for street lighting and sidewalks, two elements that are key to the vision of the project.
“Its so frustrating,” he said. “So little of it has to do with the design and construction. It’s all the ancillary things like utilities and permitting. The sad thing is that when you lose a construction season, you have 15 percent project erosion because of the accumulation of prices.”
The good news, according to Jacobson, is that the recently completed upgrades on Girdwood Place provide a hint as to the vision of the Town Square project. Like Girdwood Place, the roads around Town Square will be paved; will have curbs and gutters, and feature lighting for pedestrians.
Gated entryways will eventually lead into Town Square, and the park itself will have picnic tables, landscaping and a “labyrinth” memorial to Girdwood resident Diane Bahnson. There will be no fence around the Square and no buildings inside. Developers are aiming for a quiet space in the downtown area for residents and visitors to enjoy.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Post Office, the site of the Glacier City Center development project sits dormant, although construction was supposed to have begun this summer.
Billed as “a pedestrian-oriented mixed use development,” Glacier City Center promises an 18-unit luxury inn, a 150-seat upscale restaurant and 5,784 square feet of retail and office space.
The fate of the Glacier City Center project is, at this time, unknown. The Times was unable to reach the owner of the development, Girdwood resident Dr. Jeff Demain, after repeated phone calls.