The City plans to award a $26 million contract today to complete the renovation of the former federal building along Pearl Street into space for the State Attorney's Office adjacent to the Duval County Courthouse.
City Public Works Director Jim Robinson said Wednesday the project will be awarded at 1 p.m. today to Morganti Construction Co.
Robinson said after Morganti submitted the low bid of $30,850,000 for the project, the company and City engineers modified the plans and arrived at a final figure of $25,808,600.
City Council had approved $26.3 million as the maximum cost for the renovation, which will complete the Duval County Unified Courthouse Project.
The City originally contracted on a no-bid basis with Elkins Constructors Inc. to perform the refurbishment for just under $28 million, but terminated the agreement in April 2012.
Chris Hand, Mayor Alvin Brown's chief of staff, said at the time the City believed offering the contract for bids could result in a lower cost for the project.
Appearing Wednesday before the Council Courthouse Oversight Committee, Robinson said through post-bid negotiations, allowed by the City purchasing code that the two parties were able to "value engineer" the project to reduce the cost to below the allowable limit.
He said some savings would be achieved by the City purchasing some building materials, making those purchases exempt from state sales tax, saving an estimated $400,000.
City Engineer Manager Tom Goldsbury said the floor plan for the new contract remains "basically the same" as the original design. Some cost savings will be achieved by leaving about 25 percent of the building's ground floor unfinished.
Asked by Council member and committee chair Greg Anderson about the low figure in the contract for contingencies – listed at $348,000 on the contract summary – Robinson said Morganti is aware of the small margin for additional costs.
However, since the interior demolition phase of the project was performed by Elkins before its contract was terminated, "a lot of the surprises" already have been discovered, he said.
The project includes an elevated walkway between the County Courthouse and the State Attorney's Office building.
Robinson said after the contract is awarded, construction could begin in 60 days and the project would then require 16 months to complete.
He said State Attorney Angela Corey and her staff were involved in the post-bid design negotiations with Morganti and described the atmosphere between the City and the prosecutors as "harmonious."
Assistant State Attorney Cheryl Peek said it would be "liberal" to describe the negotiations between the City and SAO using words such as "harmonious," considering the more than one-year delay in the project to solicit bids and award a contract for the job.
For the past year since the new courthouse opened, prosecutors have remained in their offices along East Bay Street in the Courthouse Annex near the old county courthouse, almost a mile from the new courthouse.
"We've got to get our attorneys next to the courthouse," Peek said.
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