IDA prepares to open maintenance building

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Members of the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority operations team soon will trade their trailers for a permanent place to call home.

Staff recently moved furniture in to the operations department’s new 8,000-square-foot maintenance building, located off 59th Avenue East, Bradenton, adjacent to Premier Sports Campus, but they will not be able to move into the building until later this month.

Final county inspections are slated for mid-December, and IDA Operations Director Ryan Heise said he expects to receive a certificate of occupancy for the building on or around Dec. 29.

A public grand opening for the building is slated for early January.

“It’s a professional building,” Heise said. “It matches our residents’ expectations for standards. It’s definitely more of a customer-friendly (facility).”

Currently, the operations department works out of two double-wide trailers, located off Lorraine Road, by Pinnacle Academy. The property has limited space for storage and no covered areas in which to house equipment, Heise said.

The new facility includes a reception desk, a conference room, covered parking for equipment and a large bay area where technicians can weld and repair equipment and store supplies.

“We’ll be able to house more materials here and organize them and store them appropriately,” Heise said. “It’ll save time on projects because we’ll be able to keep (items) in stock.”

The new building also has desk and locker-room space for maintenance technicians, a kitchen area and shower facilities, which employees can use to wash up after working outdoors.

Clint Riley, project manager for construction contractor Magnum Builders, said heavy rains this year — almost 6 feet on the job site from March 23 until now — put construction behind schedule, but work has progressed steadily.

“We had a really good team and that’s the success to this project,” he said. “We’ve never had a project run so smoothly. Our biggest setback was the (rain).”

Heise said he plans to lease unused land on the property, but no lease has yet been awarded.

ABOUT THE PROJECT
Contractor: Magnum Builders
Total square footage: 8,000
Construction cost: $1.8 million
Total project cost: $2.2 million

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].