Convention Hall Designs Can’t Be Built for $10.5M

CAPE MAY — The current designs offered by architect Martin Kimmel for a new Convention Hall here cannot be built within the allotted budget of $10.5 million approved by voters.
The city will need to cut at least $1 million of features from the proposed hall to stay within budget.
Steve Markley, of Hunter Roberts, construction manager and member of the Convention Hall Project Team told his fellow members at a Wed., Sept., 8 meeting, his cost estimates for the project “were more than you want to spend right now.”
“I projecting right now that the cost of construction as we know it today, based on my estimate is $8.6 million,” said Markley.
Team member Al Beale said the city had $7.6 million for construction costs. Markley said his estimate of the cost for the total project was $11.6 million.
The city’s budget has $2.5 million over the $7.6 million construction budget allotted for contingencies and interior furnishings of the building.
Markley said he wouldn’t advise the city build a new Convention Hall smaller than 20,000 square feet. An earlier design of 32,000 square feet was rejected when estimates received from builders averaged $12 million.
Markley suggested a significant change in the project. He said rather than using pre-cast concrete panels on the face of the much of the building, he suggested using lighter weight, steel stud pre-cast faced panels.
He said he hoped the change would require fewer piles under the building.
“We’ve made our building smaller, to continue to make it less expensive, to get the cost per square foot down, we want to make it lighter,” said Markley.
He said he wanted to have the same wind resistance in the glass, which hasn’t been changed.
“If you looked at the building, you wouldn’t know the difference,” said Markley.
He said removing solar panels from the project could save $247,000. Earlier in the meeting, the team discussed a power purchase agreement that would put over $600,000 of solar panels on the roof of the new facility at no cost to the city.
Markley suggested reducing the contingency budget from 10 percent to 5 percent, which would cut $458,000 from the budget. He said other items for the new hall that could be optional: risers for seats in the main hall, wave ceiling in the lobby, a barrier fence and audio-visual equipment for the building.
Markley also suggested funding for utility work such as water and sewer installation be handled as a separate project, which would cut $150,000 from the construction budget for Convention Hall.
Some existing furniture could be used for the new building, said Markley. He also suggested replacing stainless steel railings with picket rail and reducing the number of flagpoles in front of the building.
Eliminating geothermal heating and cooling would save $225,000, said Markley.
Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. said the team needed to cut $1.8 million from the hall designs.
Markley told the project team the only decision they needed to make at the meeting was whether or not to let the architects continue the design process based on the information he provided or change course and make the building smaller. He said the building had 20,000 square feet of “skin in the new building whether it is glass or pre-cast.”
“If we could reduce that by 5,000 square feet and the average cost of the building system is $50, that’s $250,000 to $300,000,” said Markley.
Team member John Bilotta said he thought the building design had too much façade.
“What’s the answer?” asked team member Dennis Crowley.
“I think we’re fine,” said Markley. “I think that we are a little bit heavier than we’d like to be right now but I think we are within acceptable parameters to move forward with the basic design that we have.”