For those of you wondering – and for those inquiring – about the earth work taking place off of Virginia Avenue, it’s nothing secret. In fact, it’s the start of a million dollar-plus project reported here in June.

 

The grading work has begun for a $1.5 million expansion to a Main Street business. The business in question is Abraham Linc, whose building fronts Main Street near the Bridgeport Municipal Complex. The back of the building and the area where work is being done for the expansion is visible from Virginia Avenue.

 

The work is part of new parking lot that will take place, but the parking lot is not costing $1.5 million and is just a fraction of the major expansion. The expansion will take place to the existing 91,000 square foot facility for Abraham Link, which is a wholesale distributor of floor covering products.

 

According to Bridgeport Community Development Director Randy Spellman, a grading permit for the project was issued back in May. The permit listed the work at $10,000.

 

“It’s not unusual to see a grading permit issued and then not see work done for months,” said Spellman. “Sometimes it happens immediately, and other times there’s a waiting period for various reasons.”

 

Part of the waiting period here involved the request of the property owner, Darren Abraham, to have the acreage needed for the project to be rezoned. Abraham successfully had that recommended by the Bridgeport Planning Commission and then later saw the recommendation backed by Bridgeport City Council.

 

“It’s taken a little more time to get this going than we would have liked, but we needed to take care of the zoning issues before we could move with anything,” said Abraham, the president and CEO of Abraham Linc.

 

In recent weeks, work has begun in earnest to clear the site. Huffman Corporation has handled most of the grading work at this time, but Abraham said there are some things still needing to be taken care of before the grading work is officially complete.

 

“It wasn’t too much of a factor to remove the trees and the debris in the area, but right now we’re working with two utility companies to move utilities on the property. One of the items we’re addressing is the moving of a gas line in a right of way and it’s necessary to get that done before we move ahead,” said Abraham. “We’re doing all the necessary paperwork to get the utility work done.”

 

While it may seem like the project is dragging and could cause a timeline issue, Abraham said such isn’t the case. In fact, he said the existing building – as it stands now – is able to meet the company’s needs. He also added that during the early process there’s been some good news.

 

“Before we cleared the debris and trees from that area, we figured that we would have to use a whole lot of fill to create the flat land that would be needed for parking. Instead, what we found was that a flat already existed,” said Abraham. “Now, we’ll be able to use fill from where the expansion will take place in part of our existing parking area for the road going to the parking lot.

 

Abraham said the relatively cleared flat area still needs to be smoothed out a bit. It is roughly an acre and a half. He said some of the fill will be used to dress the area cleared to make sure it’s level as needed.

 

“As for the timeline on this portion of the project, a lot will depend on rain and precipitation. We would like to do it all this winter, but if not we’ll start in the spring as far as roughing in the lot area,” said Abraham. “The main thing with this is to do the compaction properly.”

 

Abraham said the goal isn’t to get the project done fast, but rather to get it done correctly. When finished, the plan is to have roughly a 25,000 square foot warehouse addition. A lot of the space will be upward where cubic capacity will be utilized. The expansion will be in the dock area.

 

“With us starting a little later and with winter going into play soon, my best guess for starting construction of the building would be in 2019 and done and open in 2020,” said Abraham. “We’re not in a big hurry because we’re okay on space right now.

 

“The thing is that we can see, based on expansions we’ve done over many years, is that we’re experiencing growth and that requires expansion,” he continued. “You need to be ready for growth because it creeps up on you.”

 

The expansion allows Bridgeport to remain Abraham Linc’s headquarters. The company has distribution facilities in Baltimore and in Waynesboro, Va. Abraham said without the expansion the hub would have possibly been relocated to Baltimore and, with it, the jobs coming with the future expansion.

“Bridgeport is where our executive team is located and one of the reasons we wanted to expand here,” said Abraham. “Seeing this come together makes me happy for that reason and because I live here. Bridgeport is my home, but we want it to be our company’s home for as long as we’re around.”

 

Editor's Note: Top and bottom photos show equipment on the site being cleared, while Darren Abraham is shown in the middle.