County picks Colorado Springs firm to manage capital projects

Jail, public works to get start in fall

Plans to build the new Gunnison County jail and Public Works facility have been a long time coming. In the coming weeks a construction firm should be in place to begin taking the projects’ concepts to brick and mortar by the end of 2011. 

County manager Matthew Birnie and the County’s owner’s representative Mike Mismash last week recommended to the Gunnison Board of County Commissioners that they choose Colorado Springs-based construction management/general contracting (CM/GC) company GE Johnson. The cost details are still being ironed out. But Birnie and Mismash think GE Johnson has all of the components needed to get the projects done on such a tight timeline.
“We ranked the firms and have started talking with GE Johnson, who is our top-ranked firm. Now we’re working on getting an initial guaranteed maximum price [GMP],” Birnie said. “We’ll be sitting down with folks on the design team over the next several days and trying to get to a GMP. If we can’t get to where we want to with the first firm in terms of cost, we’ll move on down the list.”
The GMP is just what it sounds like: a promise from the builder that the cost of a project won’t go higher than a certain level. With fairly set costs on materials and contracts signed with the Blythe Group & Co. for architecture and planning as well as Project One for owner’s representation services, the cost of the CM/GC is a big variable.
Blythe Group owner and principal Roy Blythe said GE Johnson’s percentage fee was 4.1 percent of the more than $10 million projects, but noted the company was going to offer a reduction of that fee. “We would generally expect to see a 3.5 percent fee,” he said.
“In the CM/GC we’re looking for a partner for us and the Blythe Group to work with. We’ll see what the prices of things are. It will end up costing what it costs and there aren’t any hidden invoices,” Birnie said. “It’s going to be an open book process.”
So if GE Johnson won’t reduce its fee, the county has a list of five other companies willing to take its place. Blythe and Birnie agreed that the difference between the top-ranked company and its closest competition was miniscule; the same could be said for the second-and third-ranked companies.
“We got references on all six of firms. There were pluses and minuses for all firms, including the one that was top-ranked. It’s not a situation where one firm rose to the top,” Birnie said. “The county team unanimously selected Johnson as the one they wanted to work with, but at some point in the process five of the six firms were number one on someone’s list.”
But GE Johnson has experience working on correctional facilities, public works or transportation facilities and working in mountain climates, which is crucial to a project set to start in September.
And as with all county projects, the push has been made to maximize the use of local labor on the projects.
Mismash told the commissioners, “We continue to emphasize that with all of them. I think they all verbally, in the interview, addressed that very well. Johnson hasn’t worked up here recently, but they know the territory. We hammered that very hard with all of the firms.”
Director of public works Marlene Crosby said she thought the firm’s relative newcomer status might mean they will have to “cast a wider net” to get the subcontractors they need to finish the job, which could bode well for some of the lesser-known local companies.
The contract between the county and the contractor that was supposed to be signed at a regular meeting this week will have to wait until all sides can agree on how much the project is expected to cost.
The firm attended a meeting with the Blythe Group last week to get a better feel for the plans that are being laid out.
“After that meeting, the architect will further refine their design within the initial Guaranteed Maximum Price [IGMP]. That would form a number in contract with the CM/GC,” owner’s rep Mismash told the commissioners on Tuesday, July 6. He added that the architect is still working within the timeline that has site excavation starting at the end of August.
Birnie pointed out that part of the delay was estimating how much the necessary building materials will cost.  
“If they sign a contract and then go out to find out that prices are higher than they anticipated, [the CM/GC] own that,” Birnie said. “They’re just trying to protect their own interests.”
Because the timeline for starting the projects is pretty tight, Birnie asked that he be given the authority to sign the contract with GE Johnson when a pricing agreement can be reached. The commissioners agreed, as long as Birnie lets each of them know how much the GMP is beforehand. Until then, the public won’t know either.
“Having the construction manager on hand will be important in helping the architect design to budget and we have budget challenges in both buildings,” Mismash said. “We have to get to a number that the county is comfortable with to get moving.”