Paving the way toward expansion

We signed a contract this week to get our parking expansion rolling. You might have noticed the change in overflow parking last week and this will continue for a few weeks. We anticipate if weather cooperates to have our additional parking in place around the 1st of August. This will also include the water detention dam in the lower area of our property. Concerning the new worship center construction we are still working on a solution for water supply. We have been given a cost analysis to get a greater supply of water from both Cibolo (our current water provider) and Schertz. Our greatest need for water is safety in case of a fire. We also have to comply with the current regulations for GPS (Gallons Per Second) based on how our buildings are coded. As soon as we settle this we can get our plat registered. Once our plat is registered we can apply for the building permit. Thank you for continuing to ask about where things stand. Your interest is encouraging! August and September are going to present the phase of our growing pains as we will experience larger crowds than we ever have before. Keep inviting and we will keep making room for more. Lets change some lives!!!

The Latest

Our architectural plans are still being reviewed by Cibolo. Our plat review hasn't officially begun yet. Additionally, we've been looking for an alternative solution to supply our water needs. The talks have only been preliminary at this point. The parking expansion - I really am surprised at the hoops we are having to jump through for pavement. We've had two different reports indicating that we would have already started (if not completed) adding nearly 60 parking spaces. The news we received last week says we are still 2 weeks away from starting. If we aren't dealing with bad weather the parking expansion should take four to five weeks from start to finish.

Join me in praying for these various phases. I'm learning more about commercial construction than I would even want to know. The delays are taking their toll, but I'm beginning to think there are more delays ahead than I can predict. Thank you for your faithful support in our BELIEVE Expansion Project. Keep the faith.

Making Headway...

The last report I shared was not a good one. We were looking at a VERY EXPENSIVE water detention system that was going to be for all practical purposes a dam. We’ve worked with the City of Cibolo and our Civil Engineer and come up with a viable solution. We had to give up some parking to the master plan but we’ve come up with a detention solution that is about 10% of the cost of the dam. Bids for immediately adding around 50 parking spaces should be back next week. Then we can pick a contractor and start moving dirt!

As for the new Worship Center we keep hitting bumps that delay, getting our Construction Documents complete. They won’t be completed in March but all signs point to the first half of April for completed documents. Then the City will review them and indicate needed code changes. Once those are back we will be able to put the project out to bid.

I’ve never been part of a commercial construction project and I am learning much more about the process than I ever thought I would. It certainly takes much more time than I ever anticipated just getting completed drawings that are ready for contractors to bid and do the work. Keep the faith and know that soon we will be seeing earth moving equipment in front of our property. I BELIEVE!

Making Progress

Progress is happening even though there are no visible signs yet. I was updated earlier today with some time-line projections. We are waiting on the civil engineer to finish all access points and flat work (sidewalks/walkways). The expected completion of this is March 5th. Then all engineers will have one final review after architects assemble the drafted construction document (this is basically the blueprints with every detail imaginable). They each get a week to identify any needed corrections. Then we finally get to put the project out to bid! If we can maintain this time-line we should have a company selected by early May.

Another aspect we are working on is adding nearly 60 parking spaces ASAP. We were crushed a few weeks ago with news of a required detention pond that would break the bank. However, we didn't give up and kept pressing to find an acceptable solution. The results are we've had to give up some of the parking plan but we still get to add around 150 more parking spaces with a minimal/affordable detention pond. I think we should have a solid plan for this to submit to the City of Cibolo around mid-March.

Keep praying for this project. You've been faithful and patient. That is a hard combination to have. Soon we will be seeing construction begin and I can hardly wait!

Update on the Dallas visit

There were a couple of major accomplishments with today's visit to Dallas.

1. Stage Height - We've been wrestling with this for over 3 months. And we had previously been able to lower the stage height from 36 inches to 28 inches. We had to wait for a "sight line" study before we could do anything else and the speaker design for the audio system had to be worked out. (There will be some speakers built into the stage and there has to be enough height to allow for these speakers.) After reviewing the sight lines we were able to lower the stage height to 21 inches. This is great news! The lower the height the more connected the audience will feel to what is happening on stage.

2. Video Display System - This is what prompted today's visit. There had been some changes that deviated from the original vision of what we ultimately want to end up with. So most of the design here will be limited to just getting the infrastructure in place so at a later date we will be able to add a VIDEO WALL behind the band. There are too many uses for this to list here but I am really looking forward to what this will add to the worship experience.

3. House and Stage lighting - This is now our holdup before we can complete our Construction Documents. The Lighting Engineer, the Electrical Engineer and the HVAC Engineer have to re-spec the plans. When the lighting plan changes it affects the electrical needs as well as the air conditioning needs.

I didn't get a specific date for completing the construction documents but I anticipate they will be done this month. Then the hard bids will begin and after that we will work with a contractor to make some adjustments to reduce the cost of the project without compromising our needs. When the value engineering is complete and permits are in place then we will see the construction begin!

The one thing I know about this project... we need the space ASAP!

Day trip to Dallas

In the morning I am flying to Dallas for a meeting with our architect as well as our Audio/Video/Lighting (AVL) engineer. The purpose of the meeting is to settle on the AVL plan for the stage in the worship center.

I'll provide an update after the visit.

The Inside Scoop

I'm glad you've discovered the blog where I will be making updates on the status/progress of our expansion project to add our new Worship Center and expand our parking.

Here is where we currently stand.
-Parking-
We are waiting to hear back from the City of Cibolo concerning a water detention pond. This is something we were told at the first of the year we would need. It was news to us. We are working with our Civil Engineer to see if there is a way to use a more eco-friendly surface or if there is another approach we can take to eliminate or delay the need for water detention. We are praying that we can either phase in the parking plan to include water detention when we add our last phase of parking or that we can create a different parking plan that won't require the detention. After we have a final word here, we will let you know where things stand.

-Construction-
The work with the Architects to have a finalized plan to send out for hard bids to contractors should be complete by March. We had hoped to complete this before the end of the year (2009). There are several engineer specs coming from several different entities to complete these documents. We had previously anticipated a Spring start date but there have been some minor delays. It's really hard to predict at this point a start date. Once a contractor is selected and they submit our plans to the City we will have a solid understanding of a probable time line.

-In the meantime-
Keep praying for this project! Thank you for your generous support. The sacrifice will be more than worth it!