Lebanon firm gets city's facade project

Friday, July 24, 2015

The second round of downtown facade work, one of the last remaining elements of the Greencastle Stellar Community Grant effort, has been awarded to the lone bidder on the nearly $1.5 million project.

The Lebanon firm 3D Professional Contracting received unanimous approval from the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission this week after submitting a $1,484,000 base bid proposal, less than $3,000 more than the engineering estimate on the facade work in Phase II of the project.

Engineers' estimates of the work were $1,481,323 for the base bid.

An Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) grant -- part of the city's original $19.5 million Stellar grant -- will fund a $500,000 share of the project cost. Meanwhile, property owners are contributing $164,086 as their 10 percent match.

That makes the Redevelopment Commission total contribution $1,013,014 (including $193,100 in professional fees on the project).

City officials were surprised to receive only one bid on the facade work after having three contractors represented at a recent pre-bid meeting on the project.

"We don't know why the other two didn't bid," Mayor Murray said.

While 3D Professional Contracting hasn't done any previous work for the city, the project architects, Odle McGuire and Shook, are familiar with the firm, as is the state, Mayor Sue Murray said.

"They've done a number of projects (for the state)," she said, "just not in our vicinity."

Based on the state's familiarity with the contractor, Redevelopment Commission member Gary Lemon made the motion to approve the one and only bid, preferring not to waste another month of construction weather by rebidding the work.

Commission members Drew Brattain, Gwen Morris, Tanis Monday and President Erika Gilmore made the approval unanimous.

Although no starting date was listed for the project, by contract the Phase II facade work is to be substantially completed by Dec. 31, the mayor said.

The approval granted was for the base bid only and not for anything from a list of alternates that will become the property owners' responsibility 100 percent if they desire to undertake the work.

Those alternates include:

-- Elevation work at 1 W. Franklin St., the law office of Sharon Hammond.

-- Masonry work at 10-12 N. Jackson St., Felling and Felling law offices.

-- Window replacement at 10-12 N. Jackson St., Felling and Felling law offices.

-- Masonry work at 20-24 W. Washington St., old Central National Bank building at southeast corner of Washington and Jackson streets.

-- Masonry work at 8-10 W. Washington St., the building housing Game Warehouse and Mason Jewelers.

-- Masonry work at 19-25 S. Indiana St., southeast corner of Indiana and Walnut.

-- Masonry work at 24-26 S. Indiana St., southwest corner of Indiana and Walnut.

In other Stellar project-related news, the third and final streetscape project on Vine Street is continuing on schedule, the mayor said.

That is despite Duke Energy earlier this week having to reposition utility poles that had been moved previously but had been placed incorrectly near Seminary Street.

That is not expected to significantly delay the Vine Street project, which is still scheduled for completion by Oct. 1.

Mayor Murray also announced that the city is scheduled to open bids on the downtown loft apartment project on Sept. 3.

There are 11 second-floor loft apartments included in the project. A meeting with property owners of those loft designations is also on the horizon.

Meanwhile, the new city parking lots, while already in use in two locations off the square, are awaiting final punch-list approval, the mayor said.

The Redevelopment Commission will next meet in regular session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26 at City Hall.

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