Board of Visitors approves cost overrun

At a succinct meeting Friday morning, the executive board of the VCU Board of Visitors sped along two construction projects. They also discovered a new trend that might mean higher costs for future buildings and renovations.

First, the board heard from John M. Bennett, the senior vice president for finance and administration.

“Your coming here today lets us not lose two months of design time,” Bennett told the small group. He recommended Commonwealth Architects and Ballinger Architects to complete the first project, the 41,000-square-foot School of Dentistry building. It is the same architectural firm lined up to construct the Medical Sciences II Building.

“We think they’re well positioned to work on this dental addition,” Bennett said, citing their experience in other hospital and research projects.

Next up was a budget overrun for the Franklin Street Terrace renovation. The only bid for the project, from Prestige Construction, was significantly higher than the advertised price of $3.7 million.

Brian Ohlinger, associate vice president for facilities and construction, said it was a firm they wanted to continue working with.

“We’re having difficulty getting bids on a number of projects. In this case, this one is Prestige Construction, who’s been very successfully doing our Hunton Student Center. We think that it’s a fair bid,” he said.

Franklin Terrace needs new systems such as electrical distribution, heating and air conditioning. It is too important to cancel, Bennett said.

“We could cancel the project, but the heart of the project is basically to update the building systems to meet life safety codes, so that wasn’t really an option for us,” he said.

Bennett told the board they had reduced the project cost by $100,000 and found about $600,000 in state funds to help the project. The renovation will end up costing $4.3 million.

University President Eugene P. Trani said many projects were rising in cost.

“This is going to become an increasingly common phenomenon. All of our pre-estimation bids are becoming higher,” he said. He said the amount of construction going on in Richmond and higher prices from subcontractors were driving up costs.

The board approved both moves before their coffee got cold, as the meeting lasted less than 15 minutes.

The special meeting was “a bit of inconvenience for the executive committee, but it’s quite actually worth it,” Vice Rector Ralph L. “Bill” Axselle Jr. said.