Mount Prospect chooses police station construction manager
Mount Prospect village trustees took the initial step this week to hiring Zion-based Camosy Construction to oversee construction of the village's new police station in the Kensington Business Center.
Trustees authorized Village Manager Michael Cassady to negotiate a contract of up to $72,000 with Camosy for pre-construction services. The company bid about $1.2 million to manage the entire $27 million project, though that deal has yet to be finalized.
"By doing this incrementally, we have an off ramp," Mayor Arlene Juracek said. "Some would say, 'But you're committed.' But we do have off ramps and we will approach this very carefully."
Camosy was chosen over six other bidders. Camosy and Mount Prospect-based Nicholas & Associates were scheduled to make presentations at last week's village board workshop meeting, but Nicholas withdrew, leaving Camosy as the lone finalist.
Cassady stated the case for Camosy, emphasizing its experience constructing police headquarters, as well as its background with adaptive reuse projects, such as the one planned in Mount Prospect. The village is converting a 103,126-square-foot industrial building at 799 Biermann Court into its next police headquarters.
"I think they gave us the most aggressive bid of the construction managers that were presented to us," Cassady said.
Village officials said a construction manager would be part of the project team early in the design process, continually pricing and budgeting ideas and concepts to remain on budget throughout the project.
The approach would emphasize "value engineering" during the design process, rather than bidding construction after the design is completed and then possibly starting from scratch if costs exceed budget, officials said.