Construction begins on CentrePointe office tower after 9 years of waiting

Construction has started on the first building of the CentrePointe project, more than nine years after the downtown development was first announced.

Crews were setting rebar Friday that will be part of foundational walls used to secure large steel beams in a 12-story office tower. The first steel beam is scheduled to go up sometime in mid-December.

The first shipment of steel came in this week, said Dudley Webb of the Webb Companies, one of the developers of the project that takes up an entire city block.

Construction was completed earlier this fall on a three-story, 700-space underground parking garage on the block bounded by Main, Mill, Vine and Limestone streets. Plans for the development include the office tower with condominium penthouses, a 120-room extended-stay Residence Inn with a rooftop bar, and a 230-room Marriott hotel.

The project has been scaled back and redesigned several times since Webb announced his intentions to build a 40-story office tower in March 2008.

The office tower and hotels are expected to be built at the same time. Webb said the hotels will be built using prefabricated concrete slabs, which will be built off site. Those pieces should arrive in coming weeks, he said.

Construction on the office tower and the hotels should be completed by late 2018, he said, though the buildings likely won’t be open until 2019.

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 3:11 PM with the headline "Construction begins on CentrePointe office tower after 9 years of waiting."