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| 5/12/2008 4:28:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| STEPHANIE LUDWIG/PILOT-TRIBUNE | “Shay” means chaise, or a light, two-person carriage drawn by a single horse. Jay and Shauna Gerke, shown at the site in Blair, thought the word fitting for a wedding reception hall. It is also a combination of their first names. |
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Shay Center still a go
$9 million project ‘good for community’
Stephanie Ludwig
Reporter
First they lost their jobs. Then the city wouldn't give them a building permit. Then a retaining wall was sinking. Then the hotel wasn't going to happen. Then they went broke.
And then Jay and Shauna Gerke decided to put all the rumors circulating about the Shay Center, a reception and convention center with hotel that they are building, to rest.
None of those things happened, insists Shauna Gerke. "It's just moving along slower than we thought."
The Shay Center, originally called the Home Town Center, will consist of a 350-person reception hall/convention center, with an adjoining, 60-room hotel. The Gerkes announced their plans to build the center last August but several setbacks along the way have hindered their initial opening date of May 2008.
Currently, only a large retaining wall, piles of sand and dirt and building equipment mark the excavated location at Hwy. 30 and Pleasant Valley Boulevard.
"People see nothing happening," Shauna Gerke said. "It's been a slow process but we're working through it, chugging through it, and getting the site ready."
Problems first began last September, when the man who was going to help them build the hotel, Gary Friedenbach of Bellevue, dropped out because construction wasn't moving along as quickly as he's anticipated. After a feasibility study, the Gerkes decided to press on with the project and obtained another hotel franchise. More time than expected to gain loan financing set the timetable back again, along with design plans from the hotel chain.
The most current setback has been with the large retaining wall hugging the hillside behind the location where the Shay Center will eventually stand. When the hillside was excavated, a natural spring was discovered, which wet down the building materials and made building a challenge. Spring rains saturating the site have also made things difficult.
Even through the setbacks, the Gerkes still believe that the Shay Center will be a grand addition to Blair, especially since there is no other meeting hall currently available for large groups.
"It's something good for the community, good for people and good for us," Jay Gerke said.
Jay and Shauna, who quit their jobs trucking and at Cargill to work on the Shay Center, hope that the center will host wedding receptions, since many couples marrying in Blair must go to Omaha for a reception site. The center would also be perfect for business meetings and conventions, fully equipped with audio/visual equipment for presentations, a kitchen available for catering and a bar.
The adjoining hotel (connected to the Shay Center via a glass vestibule) could be used for out-of-town business clients or wedding guests, the Gerkes said.
"We hope not only to reach business travelers but families as well," Shauna Gerke said.
Right now, the Gerkes anticipate that the nearly $9 million project will be open for business in May 2009. But they're not making any guarantees.
"Getting started is the hard part," Jay Gerke said.
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