Tom Schmidt has had his share of challenges with getting a new convenience store built in Annandale but he didn’t expect a devastating hurricane more than 1,300 miles from Minnesota would disrupt his construction project.
"There’s a big problem," Schmidt said. "I never imagined that Hurricane Sandy would affect me but it has. Xcel Energy sent their new construction crews to the East Coast so they originally promised December but we don’t think they’re going to make it."
While the outside work is still being done on the building, it is getting to a point in the process that interior work needs to get underway. Interior work has started but if Xcel doesn’t install permanent power soon, the project could be stalled.
"The rest is moving along and we can work with temporary power for now but to download and get everything going, it could be a big problem in two or three weeks," Schmidt said. "Could it hold up the whole thing? Yeah, is it holding it up right now? No, we’re moving ahead."
Schmidt was hoping for an end of December opening but now he said it is too uncertain to predict.
"We need to finish the inside and if everything would go well, we could make it by the first of the year," Schmidt said. "I hope we get this power thing figured out."
Schmidt also said that the businesses that will be leasing the retail spaces in the building attached to McDonald’s are no longer certain. Different businesses that had previously expressed interest included Verizon and Domino’s but that could change, he said. Schmidt is still negotiating with various retailers.
Meanwhile, Schmidt has also encountered some problems with the exit leading to Excelsior Avenue from the McDonald’s drive-thru. The entrance into the business area is actually located near the west end of the lot by Schmidty’s but many people have been entering from Excelsior. Schmidt recently went to the planning commission to talk about what could be done to alleviate the confusion.
"It has been re-striped now to re-educate everybody so we’re going to see how that goes," Schmidt said. "I talked to the planning commission about it and they thought everyone would get used to it so we’ll see how it goes. People are just going to have to get used to it."