Monroe County CIB: Weddle Bros. to be construction manager for eastward convention center expansion
Weddle Bros. has been selected to be the construction manager (as contractor) for the Monroe Convention Center renovation and expansion project.
The location of the project will be to the east of the existing convention center, across College Avenue, on land owned by Monroe County government.
Both decisions were made on unanimous votes by the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
The decision to expand eastward was not a surprise. It was already known that the CIB was not going to pursue the northern option on land owned by the city of Bloomington. That’s because would have meant using $7 million of the available food and beverage tax funding for the project to purchase the land.
Monroe County government is donating the eastern parcel, which includes the former NAPA Auto Parts store, at the corner of 3rd and Walnut streets, which now serves as the county’s election operations building.
Construction manager choice
Weddle Bros. was selected from among three firms that interviewed for the job of construction manager on June 5. The other two firms were F.A. Wilhelm Construction and Shiel Sexton.
CIB members scored the three firms in five basic categories: approach; proposed team and staffing; local experience; large project experience; and XBE participation.
An XBE firm is one that has been historically disadvantaged, including minority- and women-owned businesses.
Weddle Bros scored highest in all five categories and came in lowest on price.
After the interviews, CIB board members turned in their scores to JS Held’s Deb Kunce who averaged the scores, factored in price, and on that basis recommended Weddle Bros. as the “best value.”
Weddle Bros. project executive Chris Ciolli, who was part of the team that represented the local Bloomington firm at the June 5 interviews, attended Wednesday’s meeting. Ciolli heard the news of his firm’s selection at the same time as everyone else, he told The B Square.
| Company | Points Available | F.A. Wilhelm | Shiel Sexton | Weddle Bros. | |
| Teaming Partner | Reliance (WBE) | Harmon (MBE) | Force Tech (WBE) | ||
| 1 | APPROACH | 20 | 16.67 | 12.83 | 18.67 |
| Schedule (Pre-construction, Construction, Close-Out), Timing & Process of Identifying GMP, History of XBE Contracting/Teaming | |||||
| 2 | TEAM & STAFFING | 20 | 16.17 | 11.33 | 19.33 |
| Organizational Structure, Availability, Team Member Qualifications, Self-Performance | |||||
| 3 | LOCAL EXPERIENCE | 20 | 15.17 | 8.50 | 20.00 |
| Monroe Co./Blmgton Experience (County, City, RDC, School Districts, Libraries, Ivy Tech, IU) | |||||
| 4 | LARGE PROJECT EXPERIENCE | 30 | 22.17 | 22.17 | 26.00 |
| Project Size and Complexity, Experience as CMc, Convention Center/Event Facility Experience | |||||
| 5 | XBE PARTICIPATION | 10 | 9.33 | 8.17 | 9.67 |
| History of XBE participation. Good Faith Efforts, XBE Commitments | |||||
| TOTAL | 100 | 79.50 | 63 | 93.67 | |
| Proposed Fee (Precon, Staffing and CMc Fee) | Total | $ 2,426,317.00 | $ 2,986,870.00 | $ 2,279,235.00 | |
| Best Value (total cost/total avg. score) | $ 30,519.71 | $ 47,410.63 | $ 24,333.47 |
Choice of expansion direction
The choice against the northern option was driven by cost—it would have cost the CIB $7 million to purchase the land from the city of Bloomington.
But the choice for the eastern option instead of the southern or western expansion options involved more than that.
Presenting the breakdown of the pros and cons for the three directions was Sarah Hempstead, with Schmidt Associates, the architect the CIB has retained for the project.
Big drawbacks for the western option included putting a large-scale building right next to a residential area, and the need to move Duke Energy power lines that would have been nearly impossible to relocate.
Big disadvantages for the southern option included the grade changes internal to the site as well as the disconnection of the existing convention center and the expanded portion.
Advantages identified for the eastern expansion included: its connection to the 4th St. parking garage; two potential new hotel sites (north and west); availability of the land; possible future expansion to the south; possibility of restaurant/retail development to the south.
A disadvantage cited by Hempstead for the eastern expansion is the need to relocate utilities in an alley that is now vacated. But she said that some kind of relocation of utilities would be required with the choice of any site.
The group who reviewed the sites included CIB members Doug Bruce, John Whikehart and Eric Spoonmore. Others included: Jim Whitlach (Bunger & Robertson attorney and the CIB’s legal counsel); Deb Kunce and Mary Krupinski with the CIB’s owner’s rep J.S. Held; Pierre Hamilton with Tikur Solutions (sub to J.S. Held); Sarah Hempstead and Eddie Layton with Schmidt Associates; David Greusel, Convergence Design (sub to Schmidt; and William Riggert, BRCJ (sub to Schmidt).
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