County awards up to $831,500 for exterior rehabilitation of Stedman House
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Summary
Albany County approved a not-to-exceed $831,500 contract to M and J Group for exterior rehabilitation of the Stedman House next to the Justice Center; the award covers window replacement, repointing and includes contingency and security-access allowances, county staff said.
Albany County legislators approved a contract not to exceed $831,500 for exterior rehabilitation work on the Stedman House, a county-owned building adjacent to the Justice Center.
Commissioner Lintina, representing the Department of General Services, presented the item and said the contract with M and J Group is the lowest responsive bid of four and covers exterior window replacement and repointing work to make the building weather-tight before interior renovations. "We're undertaking a rehabilitation of the Stedman House, next to Justice Center. This is the first part of the renovation project to redo all the windows and repointing of the building itself and get it back to us, a nice weather tight building before we start the interior construction of it," Commissioner Lintina said. The contract was described as a base bid of $710,000 with $106,500 in contingency and a $15,000 security access allowance.
Legislators questioned the low bid and asked about vetting and change-order history. County staff said they vet bidders, check references and that New York State registration of contractors is required. One legislator described three categories of change orders — inherent conditions, contractor/engineer errors, and owner-driven changes — and said "everybody has change orders." Staff said architects and the county's engineering oversight would review and may reject unnecessary change orders.
Several legislators asked whether previous change-order histories could be examined before awarding work on future projects; staff said the county maintains records and could review prior projects for patterns. After discussion, a motion to award the contract carried by voice vote.
The award includes contingency funding to address potential unforeseen conditions that often arise on historic buildings. Staff noted that because the project is historic in nature the architect of record produced specifications that contractors bid to, and that additional interior and electrical work is part of later phases not covered by this contract.