‘FULL STEAM AHEAD’
Permit is lifted and construction restarts at Summerside Dixie Lee location
After more than a month, construction at the Summerside Dixie Lee has started up again.
The city served a stop-work order on the restaurant building on June 2.
The order was lifted earlier this week.
The order came before the building of the first phase, the exterior base, was complete, said Chris Jetty, the architect who worked on the project.
“The Port Corporation owns the property. The tenant of the building is renting the land. I had been contracted by the port to create a base building for a specific tenant with a Dixie Lee in mind but it fell into two contracts. That’s just the way the work progressed.”
Jetty, who owns Architecture 360 Inc., said, the base building was Phase 1.
“Soon after completion, we were going to get started on the interior fit-up and kitchen fitup. I hadn’t been contracted to any interior fit-up yet.
“Not long after, the tenant identified a need that should have been in the interior fit-up or kitchen fit-up, for an exterior freezer and cooler. And work was started that they didn’t have a permit for.”
He added, “It wasn’t done with mal-intent, he was just trying to accelerate the process to get into the building sooner.”
But when the foundation for an exterior freezer-cooler was poured, the building inspector identified it as beyond the scope of work of the base building contract and issued a stop work order, said Jetty.
The drawings for the interior and kitchen fit-up were submitted last week, leading to the stop order being lifted.
Major Stewart, the owner and operator of Summerside’s Dixie Lee, said he told the contractors to pour the foundation for the freezer-cooler because it was all part of one project.
“The interior fit-up includes the kitchen equipment and the freezer is part of that. There was a permit for the structure of the building and there was a separate contract for the interior.”
But he doesn’t consider the halt in construction a setback.
“Everything is full steam ahead. I don’t think it put us behind schedule.”
Stewart says there are million-and-one things to do when you open a new business.
“Where we are now, we’re on the kitchen fit-up and install, as well as the interior, electrical, plumbing and finishing work.”
One thing Stewart says may have taken more time when it comes to creating the drawings for the kitchen was the fact that he is using pressure cookers instead of propane fire.
“That required three-phase power. And in order to get all of the specs on each piece of equipment that’s going to be installed, the engineers needed all the details to accurately determine the wattage required for the system.”
Stewart says there is no set date for the restaurant’s opening.