Fort Worth-based PRIM Construction is working on a nifty little project out west in Gordon, home of the six-man football power Gordon Longhorns.
Holiday Auto Group, along with officials from the construction firm, recently broke ground on a new 26,000-square-foot Ford dealership.
It will house 17 service bays, feature a ranch-inspired ambiance and otherwise be a “destination for car and truck buyers.”
Officials didn’t disclose the cost. The project is expected to be completed in April.
The design, though, is what makes this all the more worth writing about.
The exterior sales building will be constructed entirely of brick, a nod to the area’s history in brick making. The Thurber brick plant near Gordon supplied bricks for hundreds of miles of Texas roadways, including the bricks on Camp Bowie Boulevard, Main Street, and the historic Stockyards.
The bricks were also used on the Bankhead Highway, Congress Avenue in Austin, and the Galveston sea wall, constructed after the 1900 hurricane.
“Projects like this one are what gets our team excited to go to work every day,” said Trent Prim, co-founder of PRIM Construction. “The detail, the brick, the interior design, the history, everything about it puts a smile on our faces.”
It was W.K. Gordon, superintendent of a local coal mining operation, who suggested to his boss a business in the potential of shale mud found in Thurber. The brick plant opened in 1897. It closed in 1931.
Eighteen kilns were said to have produced 80,000 bricks a day. Dozens of different types of brick were turned out in Thurber, but its specialty was paving brick.
PRIM Construction was founded in 2007 by Beth and Trent Prim. A multiple U.S. Green Building Council LEED Awards winner, PRIM is certified as a Women's Business Enterprise and a state of Texas HUB contractor.
Holiday Auto Group is based in Whitesboro.
“We look forward to growing Holiday Gordon Ford into a flagship location in a beautiful new facility built by PRIM,” said Matt Johnson, a TCU graduate and owner of Holiday Auto Group. “We are proud of the legacy our dealership holds as one of the oldest Ford dealerships in the nation, and we look forward to continuing our service to the rural Texas community.”