Work on the new Delaware County judicial building is expected to begin in early November, according to the county’s facilities department.
Manager of Facilities John Melvin gave county commissioners an update on the building project during Monday’s regular meeting.
He was in attendance to seek the commission’s approval of the first Guaranteed Maximum Price Amendment (GMP 1) for the project between the county and Lend Lease (US) Construction Inc., of Columbus, which is serving as the construction manager. The amount of the contract for this first phase of the project is not exceed $3,490,809, according to Melvin.
“This GMP includes the site demolition and excavation for the site as well as site utilities,” Melvin said. “There’s a little bit of asbestos abatement that has to be completed on the Elks building. That’ll take a couple of weeks. Probably a week after that, they’ll start demolition.”
According to the project schedule, the demolition phase, including asbestos abatement, will begin at the 110 N. Sandusky St. location on Nov. 6. Melvin said site excavation is scheduled to begin in early December after the county receives final engineering approval from the city of Delaware. The estimated completion date for the entire project is the end of June 2017, according to Melvin.
When completed, the $32 million facility will feature a three-story, approximately 82,000-square foot office building, seated on top of a two-level parking garage. The upper two floors of the office building will be dedicated for use by Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Melvin said the lower level of parking will be accessible from the county parking lot along North Union Street, while the second level will be accessible from the alley adjacent to Terra Nova Community Church. He said a third area of parking will be accessible from North Sandusky Street. There will be a total of 155 new parking spaces.
Melvin said Silling Architects Inc., of Charleston, W.Va., is the lead firm for the project. He said Silling delivered detailed designs to Lend Lease (US) Construction on Monday to allow the contractor to determine material pricing. Complete construction documents will be completed in December.
Melvin said the new judicial building has been designed with future growth in mind.
“The actual footprint of the office building doesn’t encompass the whole footprint of the parking structure,” he noted. “That way there’s room to expand in the future. (County officials) are already planning and developing how to expand and add another roughly 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of office space to the building.”
In other action Monday, commissioners approved a resolution accepting Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and State Victims Assistance Act (SVAA) grants from the Ohio Attorney General for 2016. The first VOCA grant is in the amount of $225,667.10 with a local match of $9,028.40. The second VOCA grant is in the amount of $65,582.93 with a local match of $16,395.73.
The first SVAA grant is in the amount of $1,917.50 with no local match. The final SVAA grant is in the amount of $22,327.94 with no local match.
Juvenile Court Administrator Katie Stenman told commissioners that the grants will be used to pay for salaries, benefits, computers, counseling and training.
Commissioners also approved a new liquor license request from Taranto’s Pizza, located at 1282 E. Powell Road in Lewis Center. Commissioners approved the request without objection and did not request a hearing in the matter.
