Land acquisitions delay construction project

WESLACO - Land acquisition delays have stalled construction of a number of large retail stores on the city's north side, city officials said Thursday.

But work on the site north of the expressway on Bridge Avenue that will be home to a J.C. Penney and Lowe's Home Improvement will begin in the coming months.

 "It looks like it's taking a long time but this is a huge project," Gonzalez said. "Development of this kind takes a good chunk of time. We're looking at it being the latter part of 2009 before it's all finished."

Gonzalez said the various problems encountered during the early stages of development are not uncharacteristic of a project this size.   

"The businesses that were there needed to relocate," he said. "They (Lowe's) will take possession (of the properties) at the end of August or early September. With this size of project, especially when acquiring property, it takes a while. The transaction is fast but the possession time is different."

In the meantime, work crews are busy preparing plaza's infrastructure for major construction. The work started with installation of a drainage system, which is expected to be completed within the next three weeks, Gonzalez said.

"If you go out there now you'll see the county drainage crews working feverishly to get ready to bury the drainage ditch in front of that property," he said. "There were some conflicts in terms of utility lines and drainage. Any time you start digging and burying a drainage canal it requires coordination between multiple engineers."

Gonzalez said it is often difficult to plan for the various problems that may arise during a large construction project.

"There are a few timing issues but it's just a matter of getting all the different elements to fall into place," he said.

Gonzalez said getting all the properties planned in a manner that construction will flow smoothly has also been difficult.

"At the end of the day when it's all built it will look like one project even though there will be multiple developers and partnerships there," he said. "We're going to end up with pad sites toward the expressway and then we're going to have the big boxes which are the Lowe's, J.C. Penney which will compliment Wal-Mart very well."

Gonzalez said the development will ultimately be worth the wait and should be an asset to the city.

"This will give us a lot of additional retail that will keep more money in Weslaco as opposed to having it leave Weslaco," he said.