Contractor Approved for Police and Court Remodels
(City of Ferndale Press Release, Aug. 1, 2013)
City Council gathered for a special meeting on Monday evening, July 29th to award the bid for the renovation of the 43rd District Court building and the Ferndale Police Station. The Dailey Company, a commercial contractor from Lake Orion, Michigan has been selected by the project’s selection team as the recommended commercial contractor to oversee the long anticipated major building rehabilitations. The Special Meeting was called to help expedite the project kickoff. Mayor Dave Coulter commented,
“Since early July, the lower level of City Hall has become a packed house. We have successfully merged the operations of the 43rd District Court and Police Station in and around the Council Chambers. While we certainly applaud the efforts of our public servants and the patience of our guests, we also recognize the importance of promptly restoring their operations to their renovated buildings as responsibly and as quickly as possible”.
The Daily Company’s bid of $1,994,000 was the second lowest of all bids received. The panel considered the Dailey Company as the front runner for the project because of the completeness of their application, their ability to demonstrate an articulate vision for infusing value engineering ideas into the project, while also communicating their expectation for an aggressive move-in schedule. Gino Del-Pup, a Project Manager from Plante Moran Cresa and the selection panel’s chief facilitator stated.
“Dailey brought unique ideas that could bring the project budget down roughly 3-5% without really changing the look or quality of the project. Value engineering is the reduction of project costs by product substitution or alternate construction methods. As an example, the light fixtures specified may cost $500 per-fixture, a similar fixture which looks and works the same, but comes from a different manufacturer may only cost $300.” Funding for this renovation has been set aside for over 12 years through a capital improvement charge on tickets issued by the 43rd District Court. As of late June, the City has saved a designated
fund balance of $1,958,000 for the project, and will continue to contribute 2014 savings from the capital improvement charge as the project moves forward.
In late spring, six pre-qualified bidders were invited to submit a proposal for the renovation of each building. The city received five bids ranging from $1,901,000 – $2,219,638. Since all bidders were pre-qualified, the panel agreed to interview the three lowest bidders, Phoenix Contractors, the Dailey Company, and DeMaria on Thursday, July 25.