News Release
For Immediate Release
August 31, 2021
After the close of a five-week competitive tendering process, the Community Centre project team is optimistic to have received three bids.
While all three bids propose construction costs exceeding the project budget of $14.5 million, Council has approved the project management team proceeding with a value engineering process with the lowest bidder over the next three months. This means reviewing costs line by line to identify elements that can be modified, removed or phased in over time, in order to reduce construction costs.
The lowest bid, from Golden Globe Construction Ltd. came in at $14.87 million. This bid is for construction elements only, and does not include expenditures to date, on-going soft-costs of engineering, design, project management, equipment and furnishings or the project contingency. Combining the lowest bid construction costs of $14.87 million with the outstanding project costs brings the current project costs to approximately $19.17 million.
“We’ve always been prepared for the real possibility of the bids coming in over budget,” said Liam Edwards, Chief Administrative Officer, “so we were very pleased to see bids that came within an acceptable range of the estimate. This puts the project in a favourable position to work with the lowest bidder towards our affordability cap. The funding gap of approximately $4.6 million will be managed through a combination of value engineering, fundraising and seeking additional grant funding.”
The tendering process was a true test of the project’s estimated construction budget alongside current market conditions. A value engineering process is a common practice for capital projects with a fixed budget, and was undertaken for other Municipal projects such as the Cove Bay Water Treatment Plant and the new Fire Hall and Emergency Operations Centre.
An expenditure of up to $100,000 was approved from the project contingency fund to cover the costs of consultant fees to conduct the review over the next three months.
“We are confident that we can get within budget while maintaining the high performance and programming expectations of the Community Centre,” said Mayor Gary Ander, Chair of the Steering Committee. “It’s always been the vision for this project, and we stand by that promise.”
In addition to the value engineering process, the project team will be researching additional grant funding streams that the project may be eligible for in addition to the $7.9 million Investing in Canada Infrastructure grant, and will continue to promote and engage in community fundraising activities.