Plans moving forward to repair Courthouse Square building, parking garage
Plans are being restarted to repair the Courthouse Square parking garage and renovate the building three years after Washington County officials seemed poised to abandon the office complex.
The Washington County commissioners are expected to request proposals for the work later this fall after voting last month to hire SiteLogIQ as construction manager to oversee the project as the county prepares to award contracts.
As part of that process, the commissioners plan to vote this afternoon to reject bids put out last December for engineering and consulting services after deciding to go in a different direction on how to proceed. The commissioners are holding their monthly meeting today at 2 p.m. instead of the normal third Thursday of the month.
“In the last few months, the board of commissioners wanted to revisit (the project) since it’s on everyone’s radar,” county Purchasing Director Randy Vankirk said.
The contract with SiteLogIQ, which is based in Minneapolis and has an office in Oakmont, will pay the company an estimated $34,500 per month for full construction phase staffing, although it can be reduced during “slow points” during the project. The closeout costs will be $19,700 a month for two months and the company will be paid a lump sum of $45,000 for preconstruction bid phase services, if needed.
Vankirk said the decision to go with SiteLogIQ eliminates the need to have an engineer for the project, since those services will be under the umbrella of the construction manager.
The future of Courthouse Square was uncertain after the commissioners voted in November 2020 to purchase the neighboring Crossroads Center for $10 million and move the bulk of the county government offices into the more modern building. But some county departments remained in Courthouse Square, and several row offices from the Washington County Courthouse were moved into it over the last year-and-a-half to accommodate the construction of a new courtroom.
The decision to purchase Crossroads came after bids to repair its leaking parking garage and update the office space came in at around $10 million in early 2020. But a study performed on the building last year showed it was still structurally sound, Vankirk said, and county officials have since found ways to repurpose it with the central court filing center and other proposed uses in coming years.
“The thought process has come full circle, and we’ve realized that we’re moving people back in there and let’s get the bid back out,” Vankirk said. “The scope will be the same.”
Since the renovation plans are already designed, Vankirk said the bidding process can move swiftly with it being advertised in late October or early November, with the hopes of approving the bids early next year. It’s not known what the potential repairs will cost now, but Vankirk said there will be a “base bid” with additional features that can be selected.
“What we want to accomplish hasn’t changed,” Vankirk said. “The way we’re going about it hiring a construction manager rather than going through an engineer is a little different, but the goal is the same. It is a little bit of a restart.”