Convention Complex bid soars $5 million over the estimate

CEDAR RAPIDS - Puzzled city officials are working to sort out why bids opened Monday for the Convention Complex project soared above a pre-bid estimate of $41 million by $5 million for the project's general, mechanical and electrical contracts.

Such a disparity did not occur earlier this month when construction bids on the city's Paramount Theatre project came in at a total of $17.98 million, just over the pre-bid estimate of $17.9 million by the Paramount's construction manager, Ryan Companies US Inc.

The total cost of the Convention Complex project had been put at $75.6 million and the Paramount restoration and renovation at $35 million.

After Monday's bid opening at City Hall, City Council member Chuck Swore, who is chairman of the council's Infrastructure Committee, said it was good news that the apparent low bidders on the Convention Complex project are local contractors as is the case for contractors who submitted the apparent low bids for the Paramount's general, mechanical and electrical contracts.

Miron Construction Co. of Cedar Rapids submitted the apparent low bid to be the general contractor for both the Paramount and Convention Complex projects.

Contracts won by local contractors, Swore said, come with a “reinvestment factor” because local contractors hire here, spend their money here and pay taxes here.

Even so, Swore was focused more Monday on why the bids for the Convention Complex's electrical and mechanical contracts were so out of line with the pre-bid estimates. The city's construction manager on the project is Frew Nations Group, and Chris Nations, a principal with the firm, said he, too, was puzzled by difference between the actual bids and the estimates.

Particularly confusing, Nations said, was that the apparent low bid on the general contract beat the pre-bid estimate even as the bids on the mechanical and electrical contracts were much higher than the estimate.

“That's just not normal,” Nations said.

Four firms bid on the Convention Complex mechanical contract, with bids ranging from the apparent low bid of $10.68 million from Modern Piping Inc. of Cedar Rapids to $13.85 million from Bowker Mechanical Contractors of Cedar Rapids. The city's pre-bid estimate for the work was $7.3 million.

Two firms bid on the Convention Complex electrical contract, with Paulson Electric Co. of Cedar Rapids bidding $8.25 million and Acme Electric Co. of Cedar Rapids bidding $10.32 million. The city's pre-bid estimate for the work was $4.4 million.

The story was different on the project's larger general contract. The city's pre-bid estimate was $29.3 million with the apparent low bidder, Miron Construction Co. of Cedar Rapids, submitting a bid of $27.09 million. Four other contractors submitted bids lower than the pre-bid estimate. J.H. Findorff & Sons Inc. of Madison, Wis., bid $27.83 million; Knutson Construction of Iowa City bid $28.45 million; Neumann Brothers Inc. of Des Moines bid $28.74 million; and Kleiman Construction Inc. of Cedar Rapids bid $29.07 million.

Nations said his firm would report the bids to the full City Council at the council's meeting today. Swore said he hoped to have a better explanation then for the Convention Complex's electric and mechanical bids.