Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
March 9, 2017
At 2:00 p.m. on March 8, 2017, the City of Fernandina Beach closed Invitation to Bid (ITB) 17-02, which solicited bids to construct the municipal airport welcome center. Before a dozen or so people assembled in City Hall Commission Chambers, City Comptroller Patti Clifford and airport consultant Andrew Holesko of Passero Associates opened the five bid responses and read aloud the names of the bidders and the amounts included in the bid packages. The base bids for the terminal ranged from $3,685,000 to $5,177,411.10, with one firm (K.P. Meiring of St. Augustine) providing no bid. All bids received were higher than the estimated cost of $2.4-2.6M.
A city committee will publicly convene on Friday, March 10, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. to review and rank the bids. Their findings and recommendation will be considered by the Fernandina Beach City Commission in March or April. It remains to be seen whether the city commission will move forward authorizing the city manager to negotiate with the company receiving the bid award or whether it will cancel the current bid and start over.
The bidding companies were:
- Xeye of Jacksonville, FL http://xeyeinc.com
- F and G Construction of Jacksonville, FL http://www.fandgconstruction.com
- OTAK of Yulee, FL http://www.otakgroup.com
- West Construction of Lake Worth, FL http://www.westconstructioninc.net
Construction companies responding to the bid invitation were asked to submit bids for the project as follows:
Base Bid A: Construction of a 10,253 square feet gross floor area, two-story, general aviation terminal building, excluding the tail structure.
Base Bid B: Construction of the General Aviation Terminal Building site infrastructure consisting of site grading and drainage, access roads and automobile parking, concrete walkways, site utilities, landscaping and irrigation.
Bid Additive 1: Reconfiguration and rehabilitation of an existing parking lot and associated landscaping and irrigation.
Bid Additive 2: Construction of East-side access roads, automobile parking, concrete walkways and associated landscaping and irrigation.
Bid Additive 3: Construction of a 1,872 square feet gross floor area Quonset hut building and associated sidewalk connections, landscaping and irrigation.
Bid Additive 4, Alternate A: Construction of the General Aviation Terminal Building Tail Structure.
Bid Additive 4, Alternate B: Construction of the General Aviation Terminal Building Tail Structure with a fabric roof cover.
Bids received for the welcome center/terminal are reflected in the table below:
Consult the city website www.fbfl.us for more details on the project and complete bid documents.
Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.
Please note that the bid evaluation committee will meet on Friday, March 10, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. This meeting is to review technical qualifications of the bid, not the design. Whether to proceed with the bid and/or design is a decision that will be made by the FBCC following city staff review of the bids.
Clip it’s Wings. Lose its Tail. Should put it at the High End of projected costs. and make a whole bunch of Townsfolk Happy. and it would have a heck of alot better chance of surviving a Cat #5 Storm.
Agree, no wings and no tail please.
With a strange structure in a proposal it is understandable that any contractor worth his salt is going to build in a good sized “fudge factor.” When we want to portray Southern Coastal welcoming elegance a fake airplane isn’t what comes to mind.
Please note that the bid evaluation committee will meet on Friday, March 10, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. This meeting is to review technical qualifications of the bid, not the design. Whether to proceed with the bid and/or design is a decision that will be made by the FBCC following city staff review of the bids.
Thanks, Suanne, for the article and the clarification. It sounds as though the FBCC meeting at which this will be discussed is the proper place for interested parties to voice their opinions and concerns.
Most of the airport users/tenants with whom I have spoken believe the building is an unnecessary drain on city/airport dollars. Comments from the general population appear to align with that opinion. Since the project seems to have so little support I, for one, would like to know who is really pushing so hard for this version of the building and why?
Although understandable, it is indeed unfortunate that the meeting to discuss the bids will be held on a workday right in the middle of 2 massive car shows, a church fundraiser and organization’s home and patio show preparations. Agree with Mr. Crounse – time to get real and get this project back to basics.
No one wants this~~~no one needs this and yet the proposal is still pushed forward? Backwards Fernandina. The Planners are at it again. Ugly Goose. Build what is needed…..Not another memorial.
It is my opinion that an airport welcome center does not benefit the vast majority of Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, or Nassau County voters! So: Stop it!
This elegant design below [rejected outright by FBCC] was interesting to me because it resonated architecturally with so many of the city’s historic district structures, ie the same firm broad-base, similar vertical sweep, obviously capable of withstanding severe weather. But what do I know?
http://fernandinaobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FB-Welcome-Center-Option-B-Front-1024×663.jpg
Stick a fork in it. Would you run into that building in a storm? I suggest you would run from it.