Cole County receives update on juvenile center; design estimates about 5% over $14 million target

Cole County commissioners on Sept. 2 received a detailed construction update on the new Cole County Juvenile Center from the project’s construction manager at-risk and the design team, who said the project is roughly 5% above the county’s $14,000,000 target but can be adjusted as documents move toward construction drawings and bidding.

The update, delivered by Mitchell Fembler, general manager with the project’s construction management team, explained the project has concluded the design development (DD) stage and is entering construction documents (CDs). “Not not alarming, but still we’re sitting about 5% up,” Fembler said, summarizing market feedback on early cost estimates.

The consultants said they distributed drawings to local market partners for courtesy pricing to validate internal estimates, a step that tends to produce conservative numbers because reviewers are not competitively bidding. The team identified several categories that could be refined or removed with minimal redesign, including certain skylights, security fencing, and a potential retaining wall, and said those trade-offs would be evaluated in the next design stage.

“We will have one final guaranteed maximum price that will be based on 25 to 30 subcontractor bid packages,” Fembler told commissioners, and the team expects to present a GMP to the commission in January after public competitive bidding of trade packages. The team described using bid alternates (for finishes, flooring types, fence options and security system options) to preserve key program elements while controlling cost.

The construction manager at-risk model will keep the CM involved early to influence cost and coordination, staff said. The team said it will time the bid schedule around holidays and allow a five-week statutory period for public bid processes; they expect CDs to be available for printing and pricing in early to mid-November and to enter the formal bid phase thereafter.

Consultants raised security and procurement confidentiality as a priority. The team said publicly available plan PDFs will be disabled for this package and only purchased plan sets will be distributed to serious bidders; commissioners were told certain security details will be held confidential until final documents are ready. “Until the final is ready, and then we can we can all be transparent at that point. This this does need to be some confidential information,” Fembler said.

Commissioners and staff discussed coordination with county systems — for example, linking security and door-control systems to existing county infrastructure — and emphasized the need for non-proprietary basis-of-design information to allow competitive pricing across manufacturers. The team said it will return to the commission for formal approval of any major changes to the program or scope.

The update included schedule and procurement milestones, contingency planning and a description of how a single contract will be executed: competitively bid subcontractor packages rolled up under one CM contract that will form the basis of the GMP. The consultants said this approach reduces the risk of a large gap between design estimates and final bids.

The presentation concluded with the team’s pledge to continue periodic updates and to bring the 50% design milestone to the commission when reached.

The presentation occurred during the commission’s regular meeting; no formal vote or commitment of additional funds was taken at this session.