Minor work needed at Kress site downtown before use

Walls adjacent to where the Kress building once stood downtown require some minor work before a mural project and use of a parking lot there can proceed.

Officials with the city of Texarkana, Texas, which owns the lot, are hopeful the contractor they have hired for the job can complete repairs soon, a spokesperson said.

The lot is to be used for public parking. One wall will be decorated with a series of murals designed and painted by local artists, who competed this summer to participate in the project.

The city accepted the derelict building, at 116 W. Broad St., as a donation in 2009. It was a former S.H. Kress and Co. department store, notable for its art deco architecture.

Demolition began in May 2017 and was completed by the end of September that year. The city paid more than $629,000 to a Joplin, Mo., contractor to do the work.