Cedartown’s Lankford Events Center bids over expected price
Demolition work on empty building started, space cleared for new indoor-outdoor venue
Work on the new Lankford Events Center got underway last week as the empty building on site was cleared away as city officials work to lower costs for the new addition to the City of Cedartown.
Demolition work on the old building on site was completed by June 3 by city workers using rented equipment, and
Demolition work on empty building done, space cleared for new indoor-outdoor venue on Main St.
now the project enters a new phase with site preparation and construction looming.
City manager Bill Fann said bids were opened in May with two contractors offering up prices well over the expected costs set forth in bid proposals put out in April.
Duffey Southeast came in with a bid of $2.13 million, and Titleist Building System put in a bid of $2.133 million on the new events center and outdoor space to be constructed on the Main Street site of the former Lankford Motor Company following the family’s donation of the property in 2015.
Fann said he was going to try and find savings in the two bids with only a $3,000 difference between the two contractors, seeking to cut costs by looking at allowances for materials and by seeking less costly finishes for several areas of the new building.
This is the same problem Polk County officials have faced when seeking bids for the 911 Operations Center and the Public Works facility, which both came in well over expected costs when bids were first presented requiring creative cuts to bring down the final pricetag.
Fann said the $2 million-plus estimates are just too high for the building.
“We were looking at $1.5 to $1.6 million, and that would have been reasonable,” Fann said. “This has a lot to do with the fact that the economy is doing better and everyone is busy, and there’s not enough competition out there.”
Fann said that changes in the bids will be sent back out to the two contractors to see if prices can be brought down to a reasonable expectations.
“When you look at a bid like this, and it comes in the neighborhood of over $200 a square foot, which is outrageous. It should be in the $175,” he said. “Being a former contractor, when I had plenty of work I used to bid things higher. If I got them gravy, if not I didn’t worry about it because I already had work.”
Fann said that the review process should take at least 30 days, and “we’ll likely start by putting out some addendums for options that will deduct options, where you do one type of finish versus another for instance, and take some amendments out to these two contractors and see where we end up by doing four or five different things.”
“If that doesn’t work, the next option might be to make the building slightly smaller, which we don’t want to do but might have to do,” Fann said.