Convention Center garage builder to return $500,000
WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach County taxpayers are getting a treat: a refund.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting, Palm Beach County Commissioners approved change orders that allow the contractor building the garage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center garage to return $500,000 from a contingency reserve set up for unexpected costs.
About half of that $500,000, however, will be consumed by a $214,353 change order for lighting.
Managers had decided the hanging LED ceiling lights hang too low, and they’re being redesigned, said John Chesher, the county’s director of capital improvements.
“It reduced the head room in the garage,” Chesher said l a s t week . “Putt i ng t hem (lights) higher created a few new shadows. So that’s why we had to buy more light fixtures.”
Usually, architects would have added redesign costs on top of that, but “as a portion of this Change Order is considered an error by the Architect, they have redesigned at no cost to the County,” the staff memo said. It said final costs for the changes will be evaluated when the garage is done.
The change order also pays for installing extra conduits and wiring to the parking ticket booth to allow for credit card readers.
Total change orders before this actually have resulted in a $44,153 savings, so there’s a credit of sorts, the memo said.
Contractors nearly always are able to give back most or all of their contingency reserve at the end of the project, Chesher said; “we’re just using it early to pay for those lights.” He said Weitz still could end up refunding another $100,000 or $200,000 by the time it’s done.
The total cost for the ninelevel, 2,648-space garage is estimated at $45 million.
While final approval likely will be around February, Weitz is pushing to have the garage operational in time for the Art Palm Beach show Jan. 19-23.