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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; The job site for the Sterling Annex apartments has been quiet for a while, but the project is on track for an early spring completion, project engineer George Albert said Monday.
				Stacks of drywall sheets covered with clear plastic and full garbage container sat in the dirt and gravel lot outside the building. A telescopic forklift was parked in the rear by locked storage containers. The scaffolding was set up on the side of the four-story brick building facing the Volunteers of America property, but there were no workers on it.
				There was no more room inside for the drywall and many of the workers were from out-of-town and went home for the holidays, Albert said. In addition, the interior is roughed in and ready for the drywall to be installed.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in really good shape there,&rdquo; Albert said.
				Private investors are funding the $3.5 million project to convert the annex into 30 apartments.
				&ldquo;Those are going to be done by the end of April,&rdquo; Albert said.
				The anticipated completion will run up against the two year anniversary of Fatos Mucha&rsquo;s announcement of the project. In May 2019, Mucha, CEO and President of FNM Capital Funding LLC in New York, said he and others were putting up money for the Wilkes-Barre investment.
				The annex apartments will be near other apartments in a cluster of renovated former bank buildings at the intersection of West Market and Franklin streets. It&rsquo;s not affiliated with the proposed Gateway Center project, a mixed-use development involving hotel, luxury condominiums, conference space and a parking garage next door on the former Hotel Sterling property.
				Ground has not been broken for the Gateway Center project. Last month it was awarded a $2.5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant from the state, one of seven projects sharing a total of $9 million.

Sterling Annex apartments set for spring completion