Henderson Civic Center Plans Downsized
By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
HENDERSON — Plans for a civic center will be downsized to bring construction costs within available funds, but a contract could still be awarded in about three months, according to a report to local leaders.
Civic hall space inside the civic center will not be sacrificed and will remain at 9,000 square feet, but changes are being made in materials and building methods to reduce the cost of the facility after the latest construction cost estimate came in at $4.4 million.
A fixed amount of available funding for the project from several sources totals $3,891,166, said architect Steve Fitzpatrick.
However, that figure represents the sum available after contingency and others fees are deducted from funds raised for the project, including $1.5 million from Henderson Economic Development Corporation in half-cent sales tax revenues, $1.5 million from private donations, $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $300,000 from the Office of Rural Development.
The current estimate for cost of the structure is about $500,000 over the budget, Fitzpatrick and construction manager Jim Kingham told members of the city council, a citizens civic center committee and HEDCO on Tuesday.
They said costs have already been cut and they will continue to work on bringing the price down to meet the budget.
The architect is designing the building to fit the amount of funds available, rather than design it, allow bids to be taken on construction and then find out costs have to be cut.
“We are actually encouraged; we started out quite a bit higher (on the building cost). We talked to suppliers and subcontractors about ideas to reduce costs. We’ve been able to get it down to (about $500,000 over budget). It’s a starting point. We have a lot more work to do,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Unfortunately, we are fighting extremely volatile cost increases right now on steel, concrete, asphalt and related products that are skyrocketing right now,” he said.
Steel costs increased 37 percent in the second quarter of 2008 and have risen 67 percent since last year, according to the American General Contractors Association.
The architect and construction manager are looking at all facets of the proposed structure to reduce the overall price. Size of the building has been reduced from 20,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet, with reductions mainly in the lobby, restrooms, storage area and meeting/conference rooms.
The original design specified 27-foot-tall walls for the civic hall, while emergency shelter guidelines required 11-inch thick walls containing rebar. But the architect and construction manager reduced wall heights to 20 feet, and thickness of the walls to 11 inches, achieving substantial savings.
On suggestion of a plumbing contractor, restrooms were relocated closer to utilities to avoid the expense of running water pipe and sewer pipe around the structure.
“We’ve done numerous things like that; we will keep going through the same process,” Fitzpatrick said.
Plans call for construction of the civic center in Lake Forest Park on U.S. Highway 64.
One pressure project leaders faced was eased when the Office of Rural Development granted an extension to Nov. 29 in the August deadline for when the $300,000 grant from the agency must be spent.
Invitations to bid on contracts for work on the civic center will be advertised and phone calls will be made to local electricians, plumbers, painters, floor people, vendors, subcontractors and others to make them aware that bids are being taken, Kingham said.
“We are expecting broad participation from the Henderson market,” he added.
Decisions on which bids to accept will be made collectively by officials, including the civic center committee, architect and construction manager. Low bidders will be determined and a guaranteed maximum price submitted to city council members to sign a contract, when construction would start.
“You don’t necessarily have to take the low bid,” Kingham said, explaining they can look for “the best overall value, not only the best dollar.”
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