Skyrocketing costs impact Quincy police station project; construction pushed back
QUINCY – City officials say the skyrocketing cost of labor and materials caused in part by the pandemic has the city "revisiting" plans for a new police station.
A $150 million plan to build a station and a neighboring garage has been in the works for years, and city councilors granted a final $120 million funding request in April of last year. A general contractor was chosen shortly after, but Mayor Thomas Koch said bids for construction came back higher than expected amid nationwide skyrocketing costs of lumber, steel and other materials.
In response, Koch said the city is taking a wait-and-see approach. The city council was initially told construction could start as soon as last August and the police department could move in by the fall of 2023, but that timeline has now been pushed back.
"The beauty is, there is no urgency," Koch said. "We hit the streets looking for bids at a crazy time, so we are working on getting it down. ... Why spend all those millions to save eight or 10 months?"
March 16, 2021: Quincy councilors question price tag of new police station
April 6, 2021: Final $120 million approved for Quincy public safety building
The 120,000-square-foot, four-story building will house the city's police station and include administrative offices for the fire department, a firearms training range and headquarters for the department's emergency operations, as well as a roll call room, training space and other amenities officials say the current station lacks.
The project also calls for a two-story, 276-space garage for Quincy's police, fire administration and emergency management fleet.
The project involved buying five pieces of land in the city: the Stop & Shop gas station at 450 Southern Artery; an L-shaped parcel on Broad Street that formerly housed a VFW post and now has a recycling center; the Father Bill’s homeless shelter and the city’s animal shelter; 12 Field St., a strip of land that includes a single-family home; and 39 Broad St., where a single-story industrial building sits.
The Broad Street building that houses the Father Bill's and Mainspring homeless shelter will be torn down to make room for the new station. The shelter is the only one in Quincy.
The nonprofit has raised millions in public and private dollars to build a new emergency shelter and dozens of units of affordable housing nearby, but initial estimates for construction would have forced the city to relocate the shelter between the first building being torn down and the second going up. With the delay, however, Father Bill's is able to stay in its current space until the first of its two new buildings is complete, another cost-saving measure for the city.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in November on the project's first phase, an emergency shelter and space to provide services such as mental health counseling, job training and social work. The building is expected to be finished in 2023.
Original Source: https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2022/01/14/quincy-police-station-project-hit-rising-construction-costs/9192370002/