CEDAR RAPIDS - Groundbreaking for the Paramount Theatre restoration and expansion is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 29 in front of the facility's marquee, City Hall says.

On Tuesday, the City Council learned that the apparent low bidder for the first of two pieces of the construction work at the theater beat the engineer's cost estimate, which is $5.5 million.

Miron Construction Inc., which has an office in Cedar Rapids, bid $5.38 million for the work, which includes expansion of the theater stage, the addition of extra dressing rooms and the construction of a “penthouse,” which will provide space for the building's mechanical equipment so it's out of danger of flooding.

The City Council will award the contract at its next meeting, June 28. Three other firms bid on the work, with Rinderknecht Associates Inc. of Cedar Rapids bidding $6.353 million for the job and Kleiman Construction Inc. of Cedar Rapids bidding $6.362 million. Larson & Larson Construction of Urbandale was the high bidder at $6.763 million.

A second part of the Paramount project will be put out to bid in the future and will include mechanical, electrical, plumbing, plastering and audiovisual and lighting work.

City officials said construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2012.

City figures have put the total cost of the Paramount project at $35 million, none of the funds of which will come from local property taxes. The project is being funded with federal disaster-recovery dollars and revenue from federal and state historic tax credits and a state I-JOBS grant.

Jim Hoffman, a member of the board of directors of Orchestra Iowa and the head of a City Council-appointed citizen committee overseeing the theater renovation, told the City Council last month that the renovation will “wow” it and the public when complete.