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City hears higher bids, GMP from JCI for Bill Miller and Carver projects; commissioners press for breakouts and value engineering
Summary
JCI presented a guaranteed maximum price of $8.8 million for early-release work on the Bill Miller (Miller Malone) and Carver Gym projects and an overall estimate approaching $12.5 million, citing market trends and bid results; commissioners asked for detailed bid-package breakouts and options to reduce cost and flagged HUD environmental-review timelines as schedule risk.
City staff and the construction manager at‑risk (JCI) presented updated cost estimates and schedule information for two major recreation and community projects—Miller Malone (Bill Miller Community Center) and the Carver Gymnasium—at the April 20 work session.
Lynn Jones, JCI’s director of preconstruction, said JCI received strong market participation (hundreds of solicitations and more than 130 bid responses across trade packages) and proposed an initial guaranteed maximum price (GMP) of $8,811,891 for selected packages, including an early-release site package. She broke out the larger items as $6,103,796 for Carver Gym and $2,708,095 for an early-release package for Miller Malone, while noting outstanding trade packages and incomplete design work for portions of Miller Malone that push the total project estimate to just under $12.5 million.
Jones described outreach to local and DBE firms (14.7% DBE participation; about 62.7% local subcontractor participation within a 50‑mile radius) and said the early-release approach aimed to meet grant expenditure deadlines. City staff and JCI emphasized that national price escalation and bid-market conditions have driven construction pricing 10–30% above earlier estimates and that limited slack in the grant schedule increases project risk.
Commissioners pressed for a detailed line-item breakout, additional value-engineering options and documentation showing where costs rose from the architect’s earlier budget to the current GMP. Commissioner Wharton characterized the change from a December $9.3 million budget to the current $12.4–$12.5 million estimate as a roughly 30% increase and asked for transparent accounting of the delta. Staff said they will present a package-level bid breakout and options for cost containment at the upcoming retreat and special call meeting. Staff also outlined environmental-review steps with Terracon and indicated HUD’s public-comment requirement could add about 30 days to the schedule but that some slack had been built into JCI’s timeline; staff warned of a June “stop-dead” date after which grant expenditures could be at risk.
