Community Center Update - March 2019
City Council received an update on the Community Center project during a Study Session on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. Staff provided a brief history of the past two iterations of the Community Center project as well as the current project schedule moving forward. The construction documents are now under review and scheduled to go out to bid in May 2019 with groundbreaking following in June. In preparation, no programs have been scheduled at Hillview Community Center after March 31, 2019. All tenants have been notified they must vacate the facility by May 31, 2019. Recreation & Community Services Department staff offices will be temporary relocated to the Underground Teen Center at the Garden House by June 1, 2019.
At the Study Session, staff also provided an update on the construction cost estimates and planned bid alternates. With an overall project budget of $34.7 M, the building construction cost estimate breaks out to $24.8 M. Roughly $9.7 M is allocated to other costs such as fees, permits, construction management, testing and inspections, furniture and equipment and anticipated escalation. Due to careful planning and diligent cost estimating, when the project is put out to bid, the City expects bids to come in at or around the estimated $24.8 M. A discussion of bid add alternates provided insight into the project teams strategy to possibly add more elements to the project. The base bid includes all the elements the Council and design team felt must be included in the building design. However, there are a number of alternate options the City would like to have included in the project such as an increased number of solar panels, additional EV charging stations, skylights and the like. By breaking these elements out into add alternates, contractors bidding on the project can provide an estimate for including each element into the project. Based on the bids that come in, the City can then prioritize and determine if, or which, add alternates can be incorporated into the project.
A discussion of current community center programming included a mapping of existing programming into the new facility. Though the footprint of the current Hillview Community Center is larger than the new Community Center, there is a significant portion of the building that is either unused, used only for storage, or dedicated to outside groups. The Recreation & Community Services Department currently utilizes only 18,075 sf of programmable space. The new Community Center will provide a net of 20,188 sf of program space. Staff communicated their confidence that existing programming will be maintained in the new building, and also noted that they expect programming to continue to change as recreation trends normally do and as demand for various programs shifts based on community desires. To view a copy of staff’s presentation, click here. For more information on the Community Center project, visit losaltosca.gov/communitycenter.
