City hires construction management firm for community center project

With the signing of a contract for a construction management firm on the community center project, the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission has hopefully opened the floodgates on the long-awaited project.

At its recent meeting, the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission inked a contract with Tonn and Blank Construction -- with headquarters in Michigan City and an office in Indianapolis -- to manage all the construction and monitor contracts on the project.

Established in 1922, Tonn and Blank, the company website notes, “offers decades of expertise in managing all aspects of construction services, from pre-planning to complete, design-build project delivery.”

Tonn and Blank will receive a fee of two percent of the construction contract cost. The most recent estimate of the 60,000-square-foot project has been in the $10 million range, although there has been a significant increase in the cost of building materials since that number was made public.

The first step now, Mayor Bill Dory advised, is for Tonn and Blank to do a cost estimate and work with the architect, Bona Vita Architecture, to do some value engineering.

“If the supply chain issues in certain areas persist,” the mayor added, Tonn and Blank may have to suggest something different. The architect would then have to adjust specifications and bid documents to reflect those modifications.

Tonn and Blank has experience working for the state as well as doing a number of medical facilities, community centers and YMCA projects.

Bona Vita architects have a similar resume, Dory noted.

“Bringing the two together as a team brings some mutual experience to the table that should benefit the project and the community,” the mayor added.

With the construction management hurdle finally met, construction is expected to begin in spring 2022.

A number of firms will be doing various aspects of the work. With the construction management firm acting more or less as the general contractor, portions of the job, like steel erection and electrical work, can be bid out to companies specializing in such work.

At a May meeting reintroducing the project to the community, architect Tom Salzer of Bona Vita suggested the project could take “15 months from design to construction ... once it gets to that point.” He added, however, that construction alone could take 12-18 months.

The site has been purchased for the community center project with the city acquiring from the Ballard Family the 72.3-acre site, east of the Walmart Superstore on the south side of State Road 240.

The city, YMCA and Putnam County Hospital are all involved in the project. The city will own the facility and lease spaces to the Wabash Valley YMCA and the hospital.

The Greencastle Redevelopment Commission will fund construction of the facility, using tax-increment financing funds set aside for several years as well as a possible bond issue.