T.A. Loving gets ag center contract
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 5, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday took what they say is another step closer to an early summer groundbreaking for the $16 million Wayne Regional Agricultural and Convention Center.
In December, commissioners awarded the design contract for the center to HH Architecture of Raleigh -- the company that designed the initial 35 percent of the center plans.
Tuesday morning they selected T.A. Loving Co. of Goldsboro as construction manager at risk for the project and instructed County Manager George Wood and County Attorney Borden Parker to negotiate the contract for the work.
A construction manager at risk 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 company also works closely with the architect.
Five companies replied to the county's request for qualifications.
The five were narrowed to three -- T.A. Loving, Daniels and Daniels of Goldsboro and Danis of Raleigh -- by a working group appointed by Chairman Joe Daughtery.
Serving on that group were Daughtery and Commissioners Joe Gurley and Wayne Aycock, who also serve as the commission's Facilities Committee, Wood, Assistant County Manager Tommy Burns, Facilities Director Kendall Lee and Purchasing Manager Noelle Woods.
T.A. Loving was the group's unanimous recommendation.
"This was a tough decision because any one of the three was well qualified to do this project," Aycock said. "We felt like we picked the one that might have a tad advantage, not that the others didn't.
"But this company had done this process numerous times. As far as the quality of work, all three were qualified. This one just had a little more experience in this line."
It was a "very close" call because all three were qualified, Daughtery said.
"One of the things we did learn in this discussion was that we were able to move this project along a little faster because of the close relationship between the architect and T.A. Loving that they already have," he said. "In fact all three companies have a close relationship.
"But I look forward to having some groundbreaking a little bit earlier as the result of this."
Commissioners have said they would like to hold a groundbreaking for the project next summer.
It is expected to take 22 weeks to complete the design, six weeks for review and 70 weeks for construction.
Commissioner Ed Cromartie asked if contractors are required to ensure that some of the works goes to minority contractors.
"In fact, that is one of the primary questions that was involved in the request for qualifications -- was there experience in going out and soliciting that kind of work," Wood said. "One of the things that all three stressed is that they tend to break some of the work up into smaller bid packages in order to do exactly that to encourage minority and women-owned businesses to participate."
Cromartie asked Wood if he knew how successful those efforts to include minority and other small contractors had been in recent county projects.
Wood said there have been so many contracts that he really could not answer.
"Sometimes we assume things happen, and sometimes there has to be some encouragement for things to take place," Cromartie said.
"That is what this is, encouragement," Wood said. "I want to stress to the public, the work is still awarded on the low-price basis. So while you can encourage these firms to participate, they are not given any additional consideration over and above anyone else.
"In other words, you reach out to them, ask them to submit bids. But the bids still goes to the lowest qualified bidder."
The center will be located on a 12-acre site on North Wayne Memorial Drive just north of Wayne Community College.
Goldsboro is providing the land as part of an agreement with the county. An adjoining city-owned six acres remains as the site for a possible hotel and restaurant.
The proposed center will house the Cooperative Extension Service, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Wayne County Soil and Water and have classrooms and a large lobby.
The center's assembly hall is designed to accommodate 840 people when set up banquet style and 1,554 for assembly seating.
It also can be broken into four rooms of different sizes to accommodate crowds of 190, 210, 380 and 494 respectively.
The county has set aside $4 million for the project. It also has applied for USDA loans/grants totaling $2.6 million.
The 10-year, zero-interest loans account for $2 million of the total. The county also plans to seek federal funding as well.
Another funding source will be the revenues from the countywide 1 percent hotel occupancy tax commissioners approved in October. The tax was effective Dec. 1.
Convergent Nonprofit Solutions is conducting a fundraising campaign for the project. The county also plans to seek state and federal funding.