By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The final portion of phase one of the Big Creek Crossing redevelopment will be completed soon, with the installation of a new sign in front of the shopping center.
With the phase one completion, developers will move to phase, which includes installation of a new facade and landscaping to be completed this summer.
Phase one was new tile throughout the mall, new LED lighting, a repaved parking lot and new LED lighting outside said Josh Vickery, DP Management development investment specialist.
The capstone for phase one is new signage for BCC and its tenants.
The old sign came down last week, with a replacement scheduled to be installed by the end of March.
Originally, the new name for the shopping center was to be accompanied with the new sign, but development delays forced BCC to push the naming ahead of the signage.
The mall unveiled its new name in October.
“We probably jumped ahead on unveiling a name, but wanted to give them something,” said Katie Dorzweiler, BCC property manager. “We’re going through all this rebranding, and we didn’t want to not have a name to brand. So we did that piece hoping that the sign would come down sooner, but it just didn’t.”
She noted the process of getting the new sign involved bidding the project out and working with tenants to finalize the individual parts of the sign.
“There was a ton of behind-the-scenes with the anchor (stores),” Dorzweiler said. “Before we could even send the sign to production, between owner and corporations, they had to nail out the specifics on leasing.”
With the sign going up soon, the focus will now shift to phase two of the overall project.
“We’re working on architecture for the phase 2 for the EIFS (exterior insulation and finishing system), which is the frontage of the mall, which will span from Stage all the way through the end of the building,” Vickery said. “There will be some stone, brick, awnings and the whole front will have a new look to it.”
The property will also get new landscaping with islands placed throughout the parking lot.
New entrances will also be a part of the project.
“They’ll look a lot nicer and up to date,” Vickery said.
BCC also hopes to be able to repave the east parking lot during phase two.
“There wasn’t enough funding in the CID to do the back parking lot. We’re going to be doing that through capital reserves,” Vickery said. “They’re in the process of building that fund.”
While there will not be any noticeable differences at BCC until this summer, the process is well underway to begin the exterior revamp.
“The architect has begun the architectural and structural engineering for the facade of the mall, and we will be bidding that out in 30 days,” Vickery said.
Construction is expected to begin in May or early June with a completion of late summer or early fall.
“That will complete everything that we promised to the city and to future tenants that we are working with now,” Vickery said.
After the redevelopment, BCC is working on bringing in new tenants for the property, but Vickery said that is not a quick process, but the upgrades are helping in discussions.
“In development, tenants typically start looking at different locations probably 18 (months) to two years out,” Vickery said. “Then they prioritize their list on where they want to go. … So definitely the CID and the upgrade of the mall is helping us move up on priority list for some of the tenants that we’re working with.”
Vickery said he expects in the next three to six months the community will see three tenants that were high on the community want list announce their move to the area, but nothing is assured.
“It gets tricky and cumbersome, but we have a lot of momentum with our leasing activity right now. We’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “The mall is getting upgraded. We think Hays is a great place to do business and so do a lot of our tenants that we are talking to,”