The award of the tender for the Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts could happen by next week.
A special meeting is expected to be called in the coming days to officially award the tender for the performing arts component of the Credit Union CU Plex after city administration takes one final opportunity to look at the bids and consult.
It was another indication city administration was interested in moving cautiously towards a decision, making sure all proper processes were followed in selecting a winning bid.
The discussion was part of the agenda of city council Monday night, where administration presented council with details and numbers on the bids still in contention.
Nine bids came in from all over Canada, but City Manager Jim Toye told council three had been on the architects' shortlist: ABM Construction, Jen-Col Construction and PCL Construction.
These represented the lowest bids. APM Construction had the lowest original bid of $13,330,000.
The three were then allowed to resubmit on four post-tender items: the PST value included in the bid, stiffened metal panels, friction piles and steel driven piles. That resulted in a new low bid being submitted.
Jen-Col Construction had originally submitted a bid for $13,840,822, but $764,824 was deducted as cost-savings on the stiffened metal panels, bringing their post-tender bid down to $13,075,998.
That brought Jen-Col's bid quote lower than APM Construction, which had maintained a bid of $13,330,000. PCL Construction also maintained its original price of $13,877,917. According to Toye, the new numbers had been submitted to the City late Monday afternoon before the council meeting.
All three bids come in slightly above the preliminary design development estimate submitted by Barr Ryder Architects this winter. Their estimate was $12,045,743.58, so the lowest tender bid would exceed the estimate by at least $1 million, or nine per cent.
While the bids were presented to the full council meeting Monday, no final recommendation on awarding a tender was presented, as Toye told council administration needed another few days to consult before the tender was awarded.
Toye explained that because Jen-Col had come in with a lower bid than what was the previous low bid by APM Construction, administration wanted to check with the city solicitor to make sure the bid process was a fair one. It was part of the city's due diligence, he told councillors, to avoid problems later.
"It's just to make sure we're doing everything correct," said Toye, noting the "very large number we're talking about. We don't want any discrepancy after about the tender."
Toye said the administration wanted to make sure the process was "fair to all concerned and that we're totally above board."
That consultation process with the city solicitor was expected to happen this week. Once completed, the next step would be for council to formally award the tender for the theatre component to the lowest bidder as directed by administration.
It was expected a special meeting of city council could be held, likely early next week, to approve the tender to the winning bid and allow for construction to get moving on the theatre component.
