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"IT'S MORE THAN A HOCKEY RINK!"
ADDRESSING THE VICTORIA FIELD HOUSE
There was discussion at the January 10th city council meeting as to whether the Victoria Field House should come under a construction manager process or general contractor process. The project was ap-proved on December 20th within the con-struction manager process, with Krause Anderson serving as the construction manager.
Tony Haddad, a resident of Victoria as well as regional manager for Westra Construction, Inc., a company that pro-vides architectural, engineering, and gen-eral contracting service (versus construc-tion management service), spoke to the council regarding the Field House.
Said Tony, "Krause Anderson is a very good company. I'm not here to talk about that but about the process. The question becomes what is the best process. Does the city want to assume the liabili-ties and responsibilities? I would suggest you take more time with this. I don't know why you want to spend $100,000 of taxpayer money each year when an ice arena is a money-making project. You should spend some time to make sure if you're getting the best for your money. You need to take into consideration that I'm a Victoria resident who eats at a Victoria restaurant and drinks beer in Victoria."
He said that with the construction manager process "the city is required to sign contracts with all the subcontractors, and that if a subcontractor goes bankrupt, the city is stuck" and "the city assumes responsibility if someone gets hurt." He also said there is no savings of time with the CM process and "there are no guaran-tees until the project is completed."
In response, Dave Mervin, a senior vice president with Krause Anderson, said the company is 106 years old and family owned. It does approximately $1 billion in annual construction and $.5 billion in construction management. It's been the construction manager for a number of cities and projects. "We have the best people in the industry to get the job done," he said.
"We work with RSP architects and city staff to get the specifications you want and then it goes out to bid," continued Mr. Mervin. "We make sure all of the local contractors and supply companies can compete. We've done ice arenas similar to this. We would not do any work in the bid packages. We would have incidental reimbursables. We'd have 100% of the plans completed when the bid process begins. By the time construction starts, we'd have 100% of the bids in. Through this process the city keeps control. If you're going to bond the subcontractors, you'd bond the general contractors. We're not trying to exclude anyone but give them the ramifications to get the job done."
As to "process," the city's legal adviser, David Sellergren with Fredrick-son & Byron, advised, "It's certainly easier to deal with one than with many. It's a potential disadvantage, but those things can be addressed in a construction manager contract. A great deal depends on the construction manager expertise, but there is a burden on the city. We'd write as tight a contract as we can."
Councilmember Jim Paulsen, who voted in December against the field house project, asked Administrator Steve Sarvi if the city had done a feasibility study on the field house. Replied Steve, "We didn't plan on it."
Said Councilmember Paulsen, "Every thing the city has ever done, we've done a feasibility study for it. Seems we should talk about this. All we have is Mike Ayres' best estimate."
Said Councilmember Richard Tieden, "We have studied this for about 13 months now. Lots of information has been developed. Basically, the field house is a prototype of the Minnetonka's Pagel Center. We could have another study, but we've asked the questions of Wells Fargo and other experts ... It's already been done. We've done the study."
Said Councilmember Jerry Bohn, who also voted against the field house, "We haven't had an in-depth financial analysis to see if what's being proposed is reasonable. We have not had that kind of information."
Countered Mike Ayres, volunteer developer of the Victoria Field House, "When Pagel was done, it was with a $7,000 study from Springsted. We took that report and presented it to this city last May, which was subject to a city staff review. I think Springsted has reviewed it in depth. Springsted said the numbers were attainable." Mike was referring to the $175/hour for contracted ice time and also dry land time.
Agreed Mayor Mary Meuwissen, "We had to determine if $175/hour was a feasible thing, and Mike Ayres went out and found out that it was."
Mayor Mary looked at the entire dis-cussion and project and stated, "I think what happened was that we had a vote, a split 3-2 vote to build. The vote has happened to do that, and all this informa-tion has been considered. There are several costs that occur regardless of the process, such as soil borings. We still want to have performance bonds for a total project or separate components."
Continued the mayor, "Krause An-derson will determine that the bidders are qualified and will recommend the lowest qualified bidder. Prior to construction, they would come to the city and say here are the bids, here is what it will cost to build the field house. Someone in the city helps monitor the work by the subcontrac-tors. If it comes in April 1st at $4.3 mil-lion, then that's the cost. If it comes in at $5.9 million, then that's the cost. Every single company in Victoria would have the opportunity to bid on every single item. We don't know that Tony Haddad and Westra would ever get the general contractor award, and if we went that route we don't know who the contract would be awarded to."
Said Councilmember Tieden, "This has been going on for over a year now, when we commissioned the Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association and the Mike Ayres team to pursue the feasibility of this project. This was all put together with our blessing. It's been published in the Gazette, in the Villager, and it's been posted. Mike Ayres was commissioned to move forward. No one else had come to us with any ideas prior to the December 20th vote." Click here to continue February City Scoop.
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