2009.10.29
Video and photos: Helicopter moves Lowes AC/heating units from ground to roof
On Wednesday, Oct. 28, a proclamation was made by the Lowe's home improvement chain that they're putting a store in at the former site of the West Salem Plaza. Even though Lowe's filed a building permit with the city in July of this year, and even though rumors have been circulating for over two years now, they held off on the big announcement until now. (See more details here.)
"This was an unusual situation because of the contaminated site, but now that it's all clear we can go ahead and Lowe's permitted us to release their name," said Richard Wilkinson, a partner with the development group BET Wilkinson.
"We started looking at this site with Lowe's in 2003, and there were some complications with the landowner," he said. Home Depot and another developer struck up a contract "and as soon as he dropped his contract, we came in in 2007." They closed on the property on August 5, 2008, Wilkinson said.
City council was present at what is probably the most scenic event of the construction process: a helicopter lifted 21 AC/heating units from the ground to the roof on Thursday morning, Oct. 29, with city council members, other important folks from city hall, Wilkinson and a few members of media on hand to check it out.
Check out the photos from the lift-off above in the slideshow.
And hey! There's even a video. You can wait for it to come up in the slideshow, or click here to go to it directly.
