Good Bones….
Ask any doctor or real estate agent, and they will tell you how important it is to have good bones. After over three years of plans & permits, demolition, rebuilding, & outright hard work, we are very pleased to say Casa has Good Bones. The changes are really starting to take shape & it is exciting to see things coming together!
Casa Italiana has reached a significant milestone this week in the first segment of a 3-part project: 1. Meeting Hall, 2. Elevator, and 3. Commercial Grade Kitchen. In support of the Meeting Hall we are beyond Approval to Insulate by the inspectors, the walls are “paint ready” we have insulation, sheetrock, & new windows in place (aka “skin on the bones”), new columns & beams have been installed, and the trusses are fully covered with dual layering of plywood sheets. We have roughed-in approvals for: electrical, plumbing, framing, and dedicated fire device wiring. Wall & ceiling wiring, along with low voltage wiring (media), are all installed. The hall will feature 3 bathrooms, 2 of them ADA compliant, a Wet Bar that includes an espresso machine, coffee urn, dishwasher, 2 sinks, and a refrigerator. The south-end exterior siding has undergone transformation that includes: repair, redesign, installation & sealing. Further, a new stairway has been built to connect to the new fire exit on the south-end of the building.
Beyond the Meeting Hall, the fire suppression system for the whole building is installed. We have notable changes to the 1st Avenue side of Casa: 9 Italian Cypress trees have been planted in amended soil, with a new irrigation system. Thank you to Enzo and Pepo Morella of Creative Brothers Landscaping for donating the labor to get the tree project completed! Gates and Fencing have been completed to bolster security for the property. Power conduits/wiring are all in place to support the new landscaping and our gate lighting. The last phase of this is to install the mechanicals and motor for our electric gate, ideally, this is happening this week, (maybe next week, post pandemic contractors are struggling to keep up).
On be-half of the Casa board we would like to thank all of our donors and the volunteers who have been essential to get us to where we are today. Last but by no means least, a great thanks to Lis & Paul LaBellarte of Columbia Builders, as our general contractor for the project. Paul is making Casa Italiana reality. Many thanks Paul!
Please come by to see our progress, and perhaps tour the meeting hall. Continued financial support (donations & pledges), are indeed still required to get the hall, elevator, and kitchen completed. Completion of all three segments is about 4 months away, conditional on us acquiring an additional $100K to complete the space and gain final approval for occupancy of the upstairs meeting hall, and the elevator & kitchen segments combined will require roughly another $400K, for about $500K to truly bring Casa into its potential as the meeting place for our community.
With Sincerest Thanks,
Joe Megale,
Trustee & Facilities Manager at Casa
&
Martin Nigrelle,
President of the Casa Board
