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Convention Center bids due May 6
Bid specifications for the first construction phase of the $700 million Convention Center expansion went out last month to five prequalified bidders and their bids are due May 6, officials said yesterday. After the bids are reviewed, the Convention Center Authority board and the state must approve a selection. "It looks like this Convention Center will happen - it's on a roll now," board chairman Thomas "Buck" Riley told the 15-member panel at its meeting yesterday. "We're looking to award the contract in June," project executive Joseph J. Resta said after the meeting. Construction would begin during the summer. The prospective bidders are A.P. Construction, of Blackwell; Bedwell Co., of West Chester; a joint venture of Daniel J. Keating Co. and Keating Building Construction of Philadelphia; Hunter Roberts Construction Group L.L.C., of Philadelphia; and a joint venture of Walsh Construction, of Chicago, and Buckley & Co. Inc., of Philadelphia. The first phase of construction, expected to cost more than $100 million, will involve concrete pillars, foundation work, and the steel superstructure. The $700 million project will be funded by the state under a complex operating agreement involving the city, state and Convention Center Authority. After the bids are opened, the apparent low bidder will have 48 hours to submit evidence of its minority and female business participation on the project, Resta said. Meanwhile, demolition of the buildings in the path of the expansion is "well under way," Resta said. The last two buildings to be torn down are a historic Race Street fire station, after removal of interior and exterior artifacts, and a former office building at 121 N. Broad St. Gargoyles and artifacts on the fire station will be removed in the next month, Resta said. Bid packages will go out during the summer for the second and final phase of construction, with selection in late August and board approval in September, Resta said. The project is scheduled for completion in early 2011. After a decade of planning, designing and debate, the project is being built with revenue from the state's slot-machine parlors. The Pennsylvania legislature gave final approval in July. The expansion, which will extend the Convention Center from 13th Street to Broad Street, between Arch and Race Streets, will give the facility about a million square feet of exhibit and meeting space, a 60 percent increase. The building, which opened in 1993, now spans the area between 11th, 13th, Arch and Race Streets, with a wing over the Reading Terminal Market that extends to Market Street. Convention officials sold the idea of enlarging the center by offering assurance that it would boost Philadelphia's visitor business by making it more competitive with other big East Coast cities as a meeting and trade-show site.
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