Walnut Village Project Ahead Of Schedule

A project to renovate a Cookeville public housing complex has moved faster than expected.

Chris Cassetty is the Director of Operations for Highlands Residential Services. He said the Walnut Village project should be finished before the new year.

“The job has moved well and very quickly. The contractor we have, Blaine Construction, has done a really good job and they are a little ahead of schedule,” Cassetty said. “Our original completion date for all 80 units was March of 2020, but right now we are on pace to finish sometime in December of this year.”

Cassetty said renovations to 24 units wrapped up earlier this month.

“We have 12 of the units currently under construction and 44 units that we haven’t started on yet,” Cassetty said.

Construction crews began renovating the low-income housing complex a little more than three months ago. Cassetty said residents relocated to temporary homes prior to the construction getting underway.

“We have reoccupied 20 of the 24 completed units,” Cassetty said. “The other four units will be reoccupied sometime next week.”

HRS board members voted earlier this year to ban all types of smoking at Walnut Village once renovations are complete.