Ryan to oversee rebuilding of Paramount, Central Fire, U.S. Cellular Center; Neumann of Des Moines to oversee Vets rebuild

CEDAR RAPIDS – Ryan Companies US, a Minneapolis firm with a well-established local presence in Cedar Rapids, will manage the reconstruction of the Paramount Theatre, the building of a new Central Fire Station and the upgrade of the U.S. Cellular Center along with work on some other flood-damaged city facilities.

The City Council is slated to approve the management contract with Ryan – which is now overseeing the construction of the new federal courthouse - in an amount of up to $8.35 million. Of that amount, up to $3.26 million will be paid for management of the Paramount project, Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, said Wednesday.

Eyerly estimated that Ryan will be overseeing more than $100 million worth of city work, which also will include, among other smaller projects, a new Animal Care and Control facility plus work on the city's bus garage, public works building and the May's Island parkade.

In addition, the council last night was expecrted to follow a recommendation of the Veterans Memorial Commission and hire Neumann Brothers of Des Moines and Alt Architecture + Research Associates of  Chicago  to manage the reconstruction of the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island. The dollar amount of the contract will be determined when the scope of the work is finalized.

In recent weeks, the council concluded that hiring different contract managers for the biggest of the city's flood-recovery construction projects would help get the work done on time and without cost overruns.

A construction manager for the new library has not yet been selected, Eyerly noted.