Yates to finish affordable housing job abandoned by contractor - WLOX.com - The News for South Mississippi

Yates to finish affordable housing job abandoned by contractor

Posted: Updated:
By Danielle Thomas - bio | email
Construction should begin again next week on Beauvoir Pass, a $5 million affordable housing development that's sat untouched for eight months. Construction should begin again next week on Beauvoir Pass, a $5 million affordable housing development that's sat untouched for eight months.
BILOXI, MS (WLOX) -

Construction should begin again next week on a $5 million affordable housing development that's sat untouched for eight months. Biloxi Housing Authority was left in limbo after the original general contractor for the project walked off the job at Beauvoir Pass. That was in December. Now officials are looking forward to a new start with a new company at the helm.

The frames show the toll that eight months of wind and rain exposure can take on wood. When the contractor abandoned the housing development with the work was only 45 percent complete.

"The buildings are deteriorating some sitting vacant," said Bobby Hensley, Biloxi Housing Authority Director. "So it's in everybody's best interest to get this started back up as soon as possible."

Now construction is about to crank up again on the 75 townhomes in West Biloxi. The Biloxi Housing Authority said the new contractor will spend this week cleaning the grounds and pulling permits. By next week, construction should get underway.

"The new construction company will be Yates," Hensley said, "We've worked with them in the past and we're fully confident they'll get the project moving as quickly as possible and do an excellent job. We're familiar with their work and we look forward to working with them again."

The townhomes are scheduled to be completed March 18, 2013. Biloxi Housing officials said they are looking forward to when renters can start moving into brand new one, two and three bedroom units and they know the community is just as eager.

"The security guard we have out here says people come up every day wanting to know when it's going to be finished and available to rent," Hensley said. "So people are noticing. We regret that it sat and it had no work had no work done on it for as long as it has. But it was all legal matters. Now we're ready to start banging hammers and getting on with this project."

The Biloxi Housing Authority hopes the project will make a dent on a waiting list with hundreds of families looking for an affordable place to call home. Officials said the project has a total clean slate since the bonding company also resolved the claims of subcontractors who had not been paid when the original contractor walked off the job.

Copyright 2012 WLOX. All rights reserved.