Nearly all costs set on city project

CEDAR RAPIDS - Bids opened Wednesday for a major piece of the downtown hotel renovation project came in under the $17.75 million budgeted, city officials reported, and contract prices are now in place on 95 percent of the $146 million total project cost.

The apparent low bids for the general, mechanical and electrical contracts on the latest round of hotel renovation work totaled $17.485 million, the officials said.

Project manager John Frew and Rob Davis, the city's engineering operations manager, broke down the current costs this way: $85.5 million for the construction of a new convention center and renovation of the arena next to it; $45.5 million for the hotel work; and $15 million for the parking ramp across First Avenue East from the hotel and a skywalk to connect to it.

Davis said the Federal Emergency Management Agency informed the city Tuesday that it can steer $1.3 million in federal flood recovery funds to the parking ramp instead. He said work on that job should begin next week.

The city-owned DoubleTree by Hilton and the revamped U.S. Cellular Center likely will have a soft opening next May 1, Frew said, and a grand opening a month later.

The project's cost has been a moving target. At one point, the event center was expected to cost $67 million, but Frew said earlier this year that the move from concept to actual design raised the cost. And the city initially thought the hotel work might cost $25 million before it analyzed the hotel's needs and before it signed on with the Hilton chain, which required higher standards.