Into The Final Stretch River Park Square Builder Confident Of Aug. 20 Opening

Terry Goebel hears it every day.

“When are you going to be done?” “Is it on time?” “Are you going to make your deadline?”

All the builder can do is assure people that, yes, the River Park Square redevelopment project will be ready for its scheduled Aug. 20 opening.

Goebel is the first to admit the massive downtown project looks like it still has a long way to go.

“I understand the public perception,” said Goebel, owner of Robert Goebel General Contractor. “I know half of this town. My phone rings every day with people asking about it.”

Getting it done won’t be easy.

Close to 400 ironworkers, carpenters and other contractors are working on the project around the clock, rushing to complete the five-story structure that will contain shops, restaurants and movie theaters.

Contractors have been working double shifts for six months, and triple shifts for six weeks, Goebel said. Already, half of the project’s overtime budget has been spent, he said.

“We have the manpower to do it, we have the materials to do it, we just have to do it,” Goebel said.

David Shea, president of Goebel’s competitor, Shea Construction Inc., thinks it’s possible.

“I think it’s a doable deal,” Shea said. “But it’s a big push. It’s going to take the sort of monstrous effort that he’s exerting there.”

Part of the perception problem is that much of the completed work is out of sight, while the public can clearly see the exposed girders and crane in what is supposed to be a glass-enclosed atrium.

The project also fell behind schedule because of its complexity and some enormous logistical obstacles, Goebel said.

Included among them are having to work between the current Nordstrom store, which needed to stay open during the project, and the new Nordstrom building, which also will open Aug. 20.

Also complicating the project is the lack of a staging area, with only Main Street as an access point, and the need to keep the parking garage open during construction.

The project also is being slowed by “design issues,” Goebel said.

Because River Park Square’s construction was timed to be completed with the adjacent Nordstrom store, Callison Architects in Seattle couldn’t finish its designs before the start of construction, he said.

The result is that some details of the building are still being designed.

“It’s difficult to manage,” Goebel said. “It’s difficult to order things when you don’t know what they are.”

None of that has been a surprise, project developer Betsy Cowles said.

“We always knew it would be that sort of project,” Cowles said. “With the numerous delays getting city approval, it meant (designs) had to wait until we could really get going, vs. having six months to a year to work on plans.”

She expressed confidence in Goebel’s ability to deliver the project on time.

“Terry’s a very solid contractor and there’s no question we’re going to get open on Aug. 20,” she said.

Of course, there’s a difference between open and done, and there’s a chance some tenants may be finishing their space after the opening date.

“They have made commitments to be done, but we have no control over that,” Cowles said.

It’s the tenant’s contractors that actually will be doing much of the work that will make River Park Square look less like a construction site and more like a shopping complex, by putting up the stores’ walls, shelves and decor.

“All they get is a concrete slab,” Goebel said.

WHAT’S NEXT The River Park Square tenants will begin taking over their spaces this week, starting with Anderson & Emami and proceeding with one a week for the next 10 weeks.