Back in October, the expected price tag for the Springfield City Hall renovation was around $16.5 million. Now, the total is about $23.2 million.
David Atkisson of construction management firm JE Dunn, said November’s bidding process was ultimately less competitive than the project team had hoped. Many construction firms felt they were unqualified for the ‘historic’ part of the project or said they were reluctant to take public work, he said. The bid was broken up into 30 packages, and in December the city re-bid 10 of those packages, getting a better offer for a handful.
Among those 10 was the roofing part of the job, which initially received no bids because, in Atkisson's words, Historic City Hall has a "messy roof system." To lure in roofers, the city split the roofing into two bids, one covering the parts of the roof that resemble a residential building and one covering the parts that resemble a commercial building, which netted them several offers.
Also included in the cost is $933,000 in 'bid alternates.' Those are small details like restorations to the exterior stonework and new wainscoting in the library.
"It's the building that gets put on the front of the phonebook," said quality of place director Tim Rosenbury, regarding the alternates. "This is our chance to get it right."
The proposed source for most of the extra funding, suggested by city finance director David Holtmann, is the city’s carryover money from Fiscal Year 2024. That totaled about $8.4 million. The remaining $221,000 will come from a Department of Energy grant for window replacement. City Council is expected to vote on the funding at their meeting on February 10.