CREST HAVEN – The Board of County Commissioners has rejected all five bids it received for the construction of a new $24 million justice complex.
Conversely, the board has received no bids to rent available space in the Tech Village complex at Cape May Airport.
The county had advertised in August for bids for the justice complex, a project that includes the demolition of four buildings and construction of three new ones. The were reviewed on Oct. 9, and at their Oct. 22 meeting the commissioners rejected them all.
The bids ranged from $29,426,000 to $31,020,000. The lowest bid, which came from Arthur J. Ogren Inc., of Vineland, was more than $5 million more than the bid specifications.
Commissioner Will Morey said he had the opportunity to sit through a presentation on the new complex and questioned why the county was rejecting the bids. He said the sole focus of a meeting held for the commissioners to consider the complex was the budget, and not whether what was proposed would meet the needs of the Prosecutor’s Office and the police academy.
“For $24 million I would expect that it will,” county Administrator Kevin Lare said.
Lare told the Herald by email that the county would rebid “as soon as the architect can revise the drawings – hopefully by the end of the year.” Lare said any delay of the project would depend on the architect’s timeline and any state requirements that need to be met. The ways in which the original plans would be modified could not be immediately ascertained.
The new buildings would house not only the Prosecutor’s Office, but police academy cadets in a dormitory setting, Lare has said.
Among the structures to be demolished is the large metal building that now houses the Prosecutor’s Office, at the end of Moore Road in Court House. Plans include a pole barn-type building at the rear of the new Prosecutor’s Office building for storing equipment.
According to Lare, the new building will be constructed just south of the existing building. The Facilities and Services office, which shares the existing building with the prosecutor, will be relocated to a new building near the Cape May County Correctional Center and county fuel farm.
Lare has said that when the new Prosecutor’s Office building is in place the county will demolish the existing building, as well as the single-story office structure behind it, the current cadet dormitories to the north and the dormitories near the fuel farm and jail.
The administrator has said the existing dormitories were becoming too much of a maintenance issue. He said there will be separate facilities for male and female cadets.
Prosecutor Jeff Sutherland said he will be happy to be out of a “tennis court.” The metal building now home to part of his department, dating perhaps to the 1970s, housed a racquet club prior to its being acquired by the county at least 15 years ago.
Morey asked, among other things, whether the projected costs for the complex were off base.
“I guess he missed the mark,” Lare said, speaking of the project’s architect, adding, “We will get a nice, functional building.”
Tech Village
Morey questioned whether the county planned to limit the occupants of the new Tech Village buildings to “technology”-type companies, saying he was glad the request for proposal seeking tenants contained references to technology.
“What approach are we following?” he asked.
Commissioner Robert Barr, the board’s liaison to the airport and the commissioner overseeing economic development, said the requests for proposals went out twice, and there was no response each time. Lare added that the county had been in touch with a commercial real estate company to help attract renters.
County Counsel Jeff Lindsay echoed both men’s comments, saying county officials had met with a real estate broker with Warren Real Estate who would list the Tech Village facilities for rent.
Lindsay said it was the county’s intention to create a place for technology to develop at the airport, along with the existing tech companies, but the county might have to rent to whoever is interested.
“We’ll focus on innovation, but we will look at whatever comes back,” he said.
Tech Village now consists of three new Quonset hut-style buildings that house two tenants, Cellular Tracking Technology and D-Tech International USA; construction of two more buildings is underway.
Lare said there currently is the potential for three additional renters or leases in the buildings under construction: In one, which could have a renter on the first floor and mezzanine, about 6,865 square feet; a connecting space of 1,945 square feet; in the second, first floor and mezzanine, totaling 6,851 square feet.
Morey said the county should invest a reasonable amount of time trying to get a tenant that is right for Tech Village, as opposed to leasing space out as a bakery, for example.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
