One Hundred River Street almost ready

The finishing touches are almost done: A shiny new sign is up on the old brick factory building and the landscaping is in place.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120625/NEWS02/706259943

One Hundred River Street, and the new Springfield Health Center, still hasn’t opened yet. Owners of the redevelopment of the former Fellows Gear Shaper complex say environmental problems and a last-minute permit snafu has contributed to the delay. Photo: SUSAN SMALLHEER / STAFF PHOTO Published June 25, 2012 in the Rutland Herald One Hundred River Street almost ready By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The finishing touches are almost done: A shiny new sign is up on the old brick factory building and the landscaping is in place. But the $13 million renovation of the former Fellows Gear Shaper complex and the move of the Springfield Medical Care Systems’ doctors’ offices into it, is on hold. One of the developers of One Hundred River Street, Rick Genderson said Friday that the holdup was due to the sprinkler system at the building. Genderson said he had to hire a new contractor to work on the sprinkler system, and without the sprinkler system working, the building can’t get its state occupancy permit. Genderson, a Washington, D.C., businessman, said the new contractor would be at the site today, and he expected the final work on the system would be completed this week. Glenn Cordner, chief executive officer of Springfield Medical Care Systems, the parent company of Springfield Hospital, and the first major tenant of the redevelopment project said Friday the doctors’ offices were waiting for the move — and had been since late last year. “There’s a holdup but I can’t say what the specific problem is,” said Cordner. “There’s just something that has to be completed. I think they’re very close and there’s really a minor amount of work that needs to be done,” he said. He said after the building gets its occupancy permit, the hospital’s representatives will go through, come up with a punch list, and things will start moving. Cordner said it will probably take about a month to move all the doctors’ offices into the building, as it will be done gradually, rather than all at once. Cordner admitted it was “kind of frustrating” to have the move-in delayed repeatedly. “But they’ve taken an old factory building and turned it into modern use. It’s not an uncomplicated project,” he said. “It will get done.” “The place looks great,” said Cordner. “The landscaping, the trees, we’re down to the half yard line but it’s not quite ready.” Mark Blanchard, the manager of SMCS’s renovation project, didn’t return telephone messages last week, about the status of the project. Last year Blanchard said that the hospital was spending $5 million on the renovation of 32,000 square feet of space. Renovation work began in earnest on the building in the spring of 2011, after several years of delay and cleanup of the former industrial site. Genderson said that the overall delays of the project were due to the continuing environmental issues. The doctors’ offices will take up about one-sixth of all the space in the 160,000 square foot building. Genderson said that One Hundred River Street LLC, the owner of the old manufacturing complex, was on the verge of signing a lease agreement with an assisted living facility that would take about 30,000 square feet of space — almost equal to the doctors’ offices. He said that the grand opening of the Grand Hall art gallery is set for July 20, and the formal grand opening of the rest of the building would be in September or October. Cordner said the hospital had originally hoped to move the doctors’ offices last November, and people are always asking him about the move-in date. “The developers aren’t happy either, they’d rather have some rent coming in,” he said.