Tornado damage repair among latest Fort Smith building permits

Jun. 11--More than $11 million in work was permitted by Fort Smith Building Safety last week, including the start of major repairs to damage caused by a May 18 tornado to the offices for Sykes and Shared Services Center at the former Phoenix Village Mall.

About 100 Sykes Enterprises employees were staged at off-site facilities for two weeks in Malvern and Fort Worth. They returned to work last week. Sykes, a customer service business, employs about 500 people at the Fort Smith site after adding about 200 jobs in February. In all, more than 1,000 people work at the former mall site-turned office space.

Dana Wiederman, director of Regional Communications and Public Relations for Sykes Enterprises Inc., said Monday the company also set up a temporary office at the Fort Smith Convention Center because of the tornado that preceded the historic flooding.

She noted Sykes used some of its downtime at the building from tornado damage to help fill sandbags leading up to the flood.

Lance Beaty of Beaty Capital Group, the developer of the former mall at 4600 Phoenix Ave., said the $500,000 building repair permit approved June 6 for Beaty Commercial Construction is just the beginning of a multi-million-dollar insurance claim.

Uptown Properties

The third phase of Uptown Courtyard, 901-911 Garrison Ave., by Phil White and Rodney Ghan, is beginning downtown this week with Petree Construction's approval of about $3.6 million in work. Jeff Petree, president of the construction business, said the first two phases of work to the former Sears and outlying businesses was for "extensive renovation" and "structural repairs."

"This is the actual permit to build the courtyard and 12 apartments upstairs," Petree said of the third permit for the project.

Work is expected to be completed the first part of next year, Petree said.

Bank space

Salter Construction of Conway was issued a fill-and-grade only permit valued at $2.2 million for work at 8201 Phoenix Ave. The property at the corner of Massard Road and Phoenix Avenue was previously owned by Westphal Properties and was sold to Chambers Bank.

Morrison Elementary

Turn Key Construction was also approved by Building Safety for more than $1.1 million in work to Morrison Elementary at 3415 Newlon Road. In late May, the school district administration was given the go-ahead to accept a bid and execute a contract with the lowest responsible bidder for the Morrison Elementary project.

Included in the project is the installation of demountable walls and some security upgrades. The school has an open layout, with walls that don't go to the ceiling and can cause distractions during instruction, the district noted. The school's administration was approved to "not-to-exceed" $2.5 million for the work.

In all, about $7.7 million in commercial building projects were approved for construction, including $18,300 in repairs to Golden Living at 1000 Fianna Way. The remaining $4 million in valuation included permits to construct new homes or duplexes, or remodel and repair existing homes. Shine Solar LLC was permitted for $36,679 in work at 2500 Athlone Road.

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