Under budget and ahead of schedule.
These are not words you hear often in the construction industry, but this is what you would have heard at Council meeting on Monday.
The tender for the Badlands Community Facility was awarded to Calgary based Dawson Wallace Construction Ltd., the lowest bidder, for $14,035,200 exclusive of GST, bringing the total project cost to $21,221,786.40, over $1.7m under budget.
The firm’s base bid of $13,725,000, reviewed by Graham Edmunds Carter (GEC) Architecture, will allow for separate priced items to be included such as a dasher board system at $87,000, gym divider curtains at $40,000, floor anchors to the fieldhouse floor at $7,200, one operable wall in the banquet room at $146,000 and a separate price for access control system at $30,000.
“The day that the bids came in, it was almost hard to believe when they said the first one and it was in the $14m mark and as they continued on...and one came in at less, the one we have now, I was amazed, just shocked,” said Mayor Bryce Nimmo on the tenders coming in at lower than expected.
GEC will continue their review of the bid as it included a number of alternate prices for costs savings, to determine the impact of the possible savings on the quality of building.
Work is due to start shortly with a planned completion date by the end of June 2011. Allowing 90 days for equipment and furnishing to be moved in, it is expected the building will be ready for occupancy in September/October 2011.
As well as awarding the contract, Council also gave direction to administration to recruit a facility manager for the Badlands Community Facility.
The successful candidate should have a strong background in hospitality, marketing and recreation management as part of the role will be to oversee the day to day programming, scheduling and marketing of the facility.
Administration recommended the individual be recruited within the next three to four months to ensure adequate pre-planning and early development of sales and community networks related to the facility.
With the tender for the main construction work awarded, and a facility manager being sought, Mayor Nimmo said they can now concentrate fully on the second phase of the project.
“As you know, we are fundraising for the second phase, the fact that this has come in like this, we’ve got to continue to work as diligently as we can on looking for grants, anything that we can. If there is any way we can continue getting better bids like this, the sooner we can get at it, the better.”
