There's a big hole in downtown Ignacio. The old Shur Valu building and neighboring SUCAP building were demolished days before Thanksgiving by crews from Crossfire Construction.
The demolition went "very smoothly" and was actually a bit ahead of schedule, Cindy Swanemyr said this week. Work has already started on the replacement building, although it's not very visible yet. The Swanemyr-McClanahan families own the property.
"Construction actually started yesterday," Swanemyr said on Tuesday. "Yesterday they were locating sewer lines, preliminary stuff. They'll start digging and pouring footers pretty soon."
The next big thing will be pouring a 22,000-square-foot concrete slab. "Then it will go up from there," she said. "It will depend on the weather."
She said the construction will be done by sub-contractors overseen by a project manager.
"They aren't going to let up on it, that's for sure," she said. "We are shooting for six months" to have the new store done, "but we're just saying summer" 2015. She is hoping for June, or even earlier if there is good construction weather through the winter.
The new store will be "a little bigger and nicer." Brook and Ezra Lee will lease the building and run the new store, which will be called Farmers Fresh Market, although Swanemyr agreed locals are likely to still refer to it as the Shur Valu.
The design will be pretty much what was presented to the Ignacio Town Board in August. The new store will include a pharmacy. It will have a new entry on the northeast corner with a deli just inside and inside seating. There also will be front and back entrances in the same places as before.
The building will be set back several feet from Goddard Avenue to allow for a nine-foot sidewalk; and the store will have windows for natural light, and possibly solar tubes to bring natural light through the roof, according to the information presented in August.
Two neighboring businesses, Wells Liquor South and KD's Caffe Latte, are remaining open during construction.
