Monroe County jail project now has approved contract with construction manager
The day after the Monroe County council approved its side of the real estate deal for the site in North Park where the new jail and justice complex will be built, county commissioners approved a contract with a group called WGS as construction manager for the project.
The letters in the acronym come from three different construction companies who are working as a kind of joint venture–Weddle Bros. Building Group, Garmong Construction, and Smoot Construction.
Under the terms of the deal, WGS will receive $200,000 for pre-construction activities, in addition to 2 percent of the construction cost, and $100,000 a month during the construction period.
The ballpark overall project budget is around $200 million, with the hard construction costs around $160 million. The 2-percent figure works out to at least $3.2 million.
Construction is expected to take two and a half years, or 30 months. At $100,000 a month that works out to $3 million.
County commissioners approved the contract at their Wednesday (Nov. 13) meeting.
Even though the contract was approved this week, the selection of WGS as the construction manager was made about six months ago late April.
At the April 24, 2024 meeting of the county commissioners, county attorney Jeff Cockerill described how the county’s RFP (request for proposals) generated three responses, from WGS, Skillman Corporation, and F.A. Wilhelm Construction.
At the time, Cockerill reported that Wilhelm responded to the RFP with a proposal to act as construction manager as a constructor (CMC), not as a construction manager as an advisor (CMA).
What’s the difference? A CMC assumes responsibility for directly managing construction activities, including risks and costs, while a CMS gives guidance and oversight without taking on direct responsibility for construction execution or costs. A CMC would typically provide a guaranteed maximum cost.
By way of a local example that includes one of the same players, Weddle Bros. is serving as construction manager for the Monroe Convention Center expansion project, serving as a CMC not as a CMA.
Wilhelm’s response, which proposed serving as a CMC, did not factor into the mix. The scoring of the other two respondents was done by jail transition director Cory Grass and Monroe County’s fleet and building manager Richard Crider.
Cockerill reported to commissioners in April that the independent scoring done by Grass and Crider had pointed to a clear consensus, based on WGS’s previous experience in jail construction. Previous experience in jail construction counted for 30 points out of 100, Cockerill said.
Chris Ciolli, who is a project executive with Weddle Bros., has already been working on the job—he’s been visible at meetings, like the joint work session of county commissioners and county councilors on Oct. 22. On that occasion, he briefed the county electeds on the inflationary costs of construction, which put his estimates of cost at $708 per square foot for the jail and $604 per square foot for the co-located justice complex.
DLZ Corporation was selected as the design build firm for the project in early 2023.
