TEXARKANA, Texas - Progress continues on the Hotel Grim renovation project, and developers tentatively predict it will be completed sometime this summer.
Final structural improvements in the hotel's basement will take another week or two and allow installation of two massive emergency staircases, Tim Minson, the project's manager, said during a tour Thursday. That hurdle cleared, he plans to "throw a lot of bodies at" completion of the interior, and work will accelerate.
Despite debris removal and toxic materials abatement being more difficult than first anticipated, the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging weather, the project begun in late 2019 should take less time than the two years that could reasonably have been expected, Minson said.
Already, about 80% of interior framing and drywall installation has been done to create more than 80 efficiency, one- or two-bedroom apartments on each of the Grim's second through eighth floors. Plumbing, electrical and heating/air-conditioning work continues at a similar pace.
The arched ceiling of the former ballroom on the eighth floor sustained major damage in the decades the hotel was abandoned, but repairing it is close to being finished. Crews had to rebuild the ceiling's substructure and are at work covering it with a base plaster called brown coat, as well as reproducing ornamental moldings. Final plastering and a two-color paint job will follow.
Repair or reproduction of more detailed plaster moldings on the first floor was delayed by recent winter storms and difficulty acquiring the rubber used to make the needed molds because of pandemic-related supply chain disruptions. But craftsmen are back at work on that portion of the project, and one will travel from California to do the most meticulous detail work.
Many of the first floor's window frames had to be rebuilt by hand, and new panes have been installed. Sanding and painting the frames are the next steps. On Thursday, crews were busy painting the frames of the large, arched windows at the hotel's North State Line Avenue entrance.
A new canopy has been installed over that entrance, and it will eventually include underside lighting. The pair of flagpoles above soon will be wire-brushed to remove rust, then painted. Minson said he is looking forward to personally polishing the copper spheres at the flagpoles' tips. U.S. and Texas flags will hang from the poles.
North of the building, replacement of four feet of topsoil, chemically contaminated by a battery manufacturing plant formerly on the site, will be completed within days. Pouring concrete to create a parking lot there, as well as for new sidewalks around the hotel, is expected within two or three weeks.
Other remaining tasks include installation of two elevators that have been custom-manufactured in Indiana, replacing and polishing marble and black granite wall tiles, and building new walls in the first floor's former cafe space.
Minson estimated that 75% to 80% of the work is being done by local subcontractors, and he praised their ability to come up with "think on your feet" solutions for the many unique challenges posed by renovating such an unusual building, which had fallen into such catastrophic disrepair.
Though how the hotel's rehabilitation was financed restricts how Cohen-Esrey, the project's general contractor and building manager, may use it, the company is working with the city to find ways to make some interior spaces, including the restored Palm Room on the northwest of the first floor, available for public use, Minson said.
Minson also complimented the city government's support and cooperation, saying that in the many nationwide projects with which he has been involved, he has never worked with a city more helpful and eager for success.
Because the hotel's interior spaces vary, so will the apartments, with some such as those to be built out of the ballroom, with its arched ceiling, large windows and penthouse prestige, sure to be coveted more than others. But rental pricing will be the same for all apartments of the same size. Units will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.