C.W. Driver Companies, a premier builder providing general contracting, construction management and design-build services to the Western United States, has broken ground on the new 10,900-square-foot El Cajon Animal Shelter. Tentatively scheduled for completion in spring of 2018, the state-of-the-art facility will include administrative offices, housing for animals, veterinary services for sick and injured sheltered animals, grooming, play and interaction areas, pet adoption services, an exercise area and more.
The $9.3 million single-story shelter is funded by Proposition O special revenues, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by El Cajon voters in November of 2004 for improvements to public safety facilities and a new animal shelter. A decade later, the new building will double the size of the current 50-year-old shelter and will be designed in a way that allows for potential future expansion. The new animal care center will be located at 1373 N. Marshall Avenue, in close proximity to the facility’s current location. It is the City of El Cajon’s first collaborative design-build project.
“We are thrilled to be working with El Cajon to bring the long anticipated, contemporary animal care center to the city,” said Richard Freeark, Senior Vice President at C.W. Driver Companies. “We worked closely with Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects to ensure the premises would provide a cutting-edge veterinary center, ample space for animal housing, outreach programs for community education and a sanctuary for animals to find loving homes.”
Along with Freeark, the C.W. Driver Companies project team includes Project Director Andy Feth, Project Manager Eric Schultz, Superintendent Will House and Senior Project Engineer Cole Edging. C.W. Driver executives attended the May 24 groundbreaking alongside El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells; City Councilmembers Steve Goble, Ben Kalasho and Bob McClellan; City Manager Douglas Williford and project architects from Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects.
“After countless hours of fundraising and hard work, we are overjoyed to see this project come to fruition,” said Peggy Buffo, president of El Cajon Animal Center for Education and Services Foundation. “We have the utmost confidence that Ferguson Pape Baldwin and C.W. Driver Companies will produce an impressive facility well worth the wait and we look forward to its completion.”
This project bolsters C.W. Driver Companies’ current roster of projects in San Diego County, including Fallbrook Library, Ramona Library, Mission Hills/Hillcrest Library and the recently completed Alpine Library.