Yellow Pages
The winning bid to build the marine technology skills center in the South Basin of the Cap Sante Boat Haven came in about 7 percent less than expected.
Sierra Construction Co.’s bid was the lowest of 11 submitted for the project at $5,592,500, approximately $398,506 below the cost estimate, said project manager Bryan Young.
Construction on the satellite campus of the Northwest Career and Technical Academy could begin as early as this month with the contract to Sierra expected to have been awarded Monday.
Sierra has experience with commercial and public projects across the western part of the state, Young said. What particularly got planners’ attention was the work the company did on Clover Park Technical College in 2004 and the Bothell Research Center in 2007.
As soon as the building permit is issued from the city — expected at any time — Sierra will begin work, Young said. The plan is to be done with construction in time for classes in September 2010.
The center will be built on the southern portion of the Port of Anacortes’ Parcel 1 property.
Construction will be arranged around the port’s environmental cleanup project at the former Scott Milll site next to the property.
“We have been coordinated with them from the beginning,” Young said. “We have a team approach with this with the port.”
NCTA has also been working with the port on a lease agreement for the site for more than a year, signing an option agreement in May 2008.
The actual 30-year lease agreement with two 10-year extension options is expected to be finalized soon. It sets the monthly payments at $8,500, said Executive Port Director Bob Hyde. The rate of return will be 5.7 percent, which is less than the 8.5 percent the port generally aims for on land leases.
But with the estimated revenue from leasing the facility’s parking lot to whale watching companies or boat trailers in the summer when the school is not using it and leasing out the assembly room during events such as the Trawler Fest in addition to infrastructure improvements at the site, the port is estimating a total annual revenue of $142,500 or a 7.9 percent rate of return.
The center’s design, developed by Hutteball and Oremus Architecture, includes a main entry plaza facing the marina, labs within the main building that have adjoining teacher offices and a physical and visual connection to the central project area that links to a covered outside work area.
The money saved for construction, along with other savings from the low construction bid of the academy’s main campus going in at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, add up to approximately $1.3 million. The money will allow for more funds to go toward equipping the facility and for sustainable features the NCTA board hoped to incorporate into the project, including solar panels, a geothermal heating system and rain garden to filter storm water runoff through natural landscaping.
Ground breaking is Sept. 17
A ground-breaking ceremony for the marine technology skills center is 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17.
Board members of the Northwest Career and Technical Academy and state legislators are expected to attend.
