As those of you who follow us on Facebook know, we recently received our permits to proceed with construction on our new Topock66 Resort and Spa. I thought I’d take this opportunity to fill you in on the status of the project; Let you know what has been happening and what you can expect in the near future.

These past months have been some of the toughest months of my life. If I had anticipated the challenges we would encounter, I would have gone about this project completely differently.

Many of you were with us back in September when we held our demolition party. On that night, the plan was that we would tear down the old building (before it fell into the river!) and start construction on the new project. Phase One was to have been a three story building which would include a restaurant, retail store, bar and night club. That phase was to have been open by now, and the plan was to start construction on Phase Two; the main hotel, building over the course of this summer. It was a good plan and we were ready to go, until FEMA got involved.

It seems that a small section of our Phase One building was on the edge of a flood plain designated by FEMA. Once they got involved, it held up our permitting process until we could figure out a way to satisfy them. After all the work involved in designing this project, this was a huge blow. Our solution to this problem was to instead do a small redesign of the hotel building and start with that Phase first. That would allow us time to completely reconfigure Phase One to comply with FEMA’s stipulations.

The Hotel building design is being reworked to include a larger restaurant than was originally intended for that building along with some other enhancements that will make the building stand on its own until the other building can be built. Of course this all takes time. The plans for the project cannot be finalized until everyone from local government and our banks (who have both been great!) to FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have signed off.

This is an enormous project, everyone agrees. A resort of this size has not been attempted in the area, and the financial impact on the community will be huge! However, let’s remember the state of the current economy. While it’s a great time to build, we still have to be very, very careful to do everything absolutely right.

These delays have set us back some time, but here we are with approved plans and permits. By now, the many, many subcontractors and other vendors that have been lined up have had to be rescheduled and confirmed. We feel confident that we ccan start work soon, but now there is another issue. I feel that if we broke ground today, we could be ready for a grand opening in December. How many of you will be joining us at the river in December to celebrate the opening of our resort? Not too many, I’m sure.

So, here’s the plan… In the coming weeks, we will be working on the seawall and getting the river-side of the property prepared for the River Walk since that is the area that has been the source of most of the engineering issues. This will take some time and will not necessarily look like progress, but it is a major part of beginning the project. Sometime around the middle to end of summer, we will begin the construction of the 102 unit hotel building with a microbrewery, spa and retail store. If things go as planned, you can expect a grand opening celebration in March of 2012.

To all of our supporters in the community, in the government and on Facebook, I would like to say thank you. This is a project that you will all be proud of, and I look forward to some amazing times spent with you at our new resort. I will tell you this… Challenges occur, have occurred and will most likely continue to occur. A project of this size is not easy, but I WILL NOT FAIL! If more issues come up, we’ll face up to them and get past them just like the challenges we have faced over the past months. Topock is going to continue to be the greatest spot on the River, and my staff and I cannot wait to welcome you to the new Topock66 Spa and Resort. I have spoken recently with the Owner of Pirate’s Cove and we are in total agreement; between our two facilities, we are going to make the Topock Gorge area a destination for folks to visit and have fun for years and years to come.