Centre County approves $26.4 million in bids to renovate former Centre Crest building
The Centre County Commissioners unanimously approved $26.4 million in bids for the Centre Crest renovation project Tuesday.
The county’s top decision makers have been planning for the renovation of the former Centre Crest building for years. With Tuesday’s action, the county is one step closer to reusing the former health care facility for county government space.
The approved bids are as follows:
$13,097,410 to G.M. McCrossin Inc. for general trades. Base bid of $12.9 million, $7,550 in alternates and $109,642 in allowances
$6,449,000 to Ainsworth-Enginuity for HVAC
$2,437,000 to Ainsworth-Enginuity for plumbing. Base bid of $2.4 million and $30,000 in allowances
$4,451,500 to Hallstrom-Clark Electric for electrical. Base bid of $4.4 million and $11,000 in allowances
As Commissioner Mark Higgins pointed out, most of the contractors are local. Commissioner Amber Concepcion said the bids were also on target with their estimations. In April 2022 the commissioners approved a $29.2 million budget for the reuse of the former Centre Crest building.
“(I’m) really sort of relieved and excited to be moving forward with this project with … bids that came in, in the ballpark of what we were expecting. I think some good credit goes to our architect, the Massaro Construction Management who did the estimating on what our costs would be and all of our county administration for getting this project to this point,” Concepcion said.
The board has long anticipated using the Bellefonte building predominately for county government space, but they were also exploring portions of space that could potentially be rented out to some partner agencies that work with the county government.
During an August 2021 work session, the board reviewed renderings from an adaptive reuse study of the building, which showed the Bellefonte Senior Center and some county agencies could have a new home in the facility. The preliminary renderings showed a heavy focus on human services in the building.
The building at 502 E. Howard St., Bellefonte, has 118,569 square feet of usable space. The building was previously home to Centre Crest Nursing Home and leased to the long-term care facility by the county. It moved to College Township in 2021 as Centre Care Rehabilitation and Wellness Services.
First project under new ordinance
This is the first capital project to be bid under the county’s new Responsible Contractor Ordinance.
The Responsible Contractor Ordinance adopted last year, applies to public construction contracts with the Centre County Government over $250,000 and requires the county public works contracts to be performed by “qualified responsible contractors and subcontractors” that meet criteria like satisfactory records of past performances and adequate present performance capabilities.
The ordinance requires the county to use contractors with at least 70% of the craft labor workforce employed on such projects be either journeyperson — workers who have completed an apprenticeship training program registered with/approved by the federal Department of Labor or state apprenticeship agency — or registered apprentices enrolled in such programs.
Now that the board took action to award the bids, John Franek, county administrator, said they’ll go into a period where the contractors and any subcontractors qualifications, certifications, performance, payment bonds and certificates of insurance will be secured.
