Commissioners to award center design contract
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 14, 2015 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners on Tuesday are expected to award a contract to HH Architecture of Raleigh to complete the design of the proposed $16.4 million Wayne County Agriculture and Convention Center.
It is expected to take 22 weeks to complete the design, six weeks for review and 70 weeks for construction.
Commissioners have said they would like to hold a groundbreaking for the project next summer.
Tuesday's meeting will get under way with an 8 a.m. agenda briefing followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse.
HH Architecture was hired in June to design the first 35 percent of the project.
In November, commissioners instructed County Manager George Wood to negotiate a contract with the firm for the full design.
"The fee for basic services (including contract administration) is 8.25 percent of the final cost of the project," Wood said in a memo to commissioners. "For interim payments, we will use the architect's estimated costs, but will true up within 30 days of project completion on the actual construction cost.
"In addition, there were several items that we had previously approved as additional services such as the renderings for the donor campaign and her (architect's) participation in up to five campaign events. This contract includes those previous ones, and some funds for her plumbing and electrical firms to design their components of the farmer's market building. She has included her portion of the farmer's market design at no additional cost."
It also includes her assistance in the selection process for the construction manager at risk.
Under that method a company provides construction management services and guarantees construction costs.
The company also provides services that may include preparation and coordination of bid packages, scheduling, value engineering, evaluation, pre-construction services, and construction administration.
The initial designs for the center already have been submitted to the county.
The county has set aside $4 million for the project. It also has applied for USDA loans/grants totaling $2.6 million.