A tough economy is providing a silver lining for the Medical College of Georgia and possibly the city of Augusta.
The contract for razing the former Gilbert Manor public housing area next to MCG attracted 27 official bids, far more than expected, and came in much cheaper than anticipated, said Bill Bowes, MCG's senior vice president for finance and administration.
"I was rather surprised," he said, attributing the competition and lower bids to tough economic times. "We had more interest from potential contractors, and I think that tends to drive the price down."
Instead of the $3.1 million estimate, Thompson Building Wrecking Co. came in with the low bid of $640,000, Mr. Bowes said.
"It is very good news for us," he said.
The $3.1 million estimate included some site preparation work beyond demolition, and those costs have not been assessed.
"Just tearing down the buildings doesn't give them what they need as far as being able to fix the land, move the pipes and do that other stuff," City Administrator Fred Russell said. "So there's some additional costs there that will have to be plowed into that."
The city gave MCG $10 million to purchase and prepare the Gilbert Manor site, which will become the site of a new building for the School of Dentistry, a new medical commons building that will include shared classrooms and offices for the School of Medicine, and eventually a new research building. The school bought the property from the Augusta Housing Authority for $6.9 million.
The contract for the demolition work should be finalized soon and work will probably begin in a few weeks, concluding well before groundbreaking for the dental school building later this year, Mr. Bowes said.
The school has been talking to city leaders about whether to return a portion of the money or use it for unfunded parts of the expansion, such as extending Central Avenue to access the new buildings, Mr. Bowes said.
"So we're going to work with them over the next few weeks to sort all of that out," he said.
"As they have come in under budget, that will begin the conversation about, OK, where do we go from here?" Mr. Russell said.
Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.
MONEY MATTERS
The city of Augusta is hoping to use the next special purpose local option sales tax package to recoup the $10 million it gave the Medical College of Georgia to buy the former Gilbert Manor property.
The package has not been finalized, but City Administrator Fred Russell said he would like to see it total $185 million, pared down from $600 million in identified needs. The Augusta Commission must approve the package by March 3 in order to hold a special election on it June 16.
-- From staff reports
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