CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Council is moving forward with a $33.4 million contract for a new jail site.
Tuesday, Cuyahoga County Council’s Committee of the Whole approved two pieces of legislation related to the Cuyahoga County Central Services Campus, which will house various services in addition to the jail. If the legislation is approved during a Tuesday County Council meeting, it will have one more reading before becoming final. This could happen as soon as early April.
The largest piece of legislation, a $33.4 million design/build contract to Gilbane Building Company, would only cover part of the Central Services Campus’ projected nine-figure price tag.
The largest portion of the contract, $30 million, would be for “early packages,” which are expenses that are not specifically defined, but are necessary to keep the project moving, said Nichole English, the county’s planning and programming administrator.
For example, the site has buildings that require demolition, land that must be leveled and basic utility lines that must be extended, English said.
“That $30 million is really going to be for construction work, to be determined, we don’t know exactly what yet,” English said.
Gilbane will still have to justify its expenses for the $30 million pot of money by “open-book bidding” on projects and bringing proposals to the public works department for final approval.
“They don’t just get free rein,” English said.
The remaining $3.4 million will be for “pre-construction,” which is when the company draws up specific plans, selects subcontractors, identifies potential safety hazards and more.
The county’s goal is to have Gilbane both design and build the project, which is a type of contract called “design-build,” English said.
“Design build is not what we do for everyday construction,” English said. “This is for more complicated projects. We find it works pretty well, and everyone gets the best benefits on the project.”
Gilbane was also the only company that submitted a bid for the project, English said. Several, major companies no longer build jails, and several out-of-town companies told the county they weren’t confident they could compete with Gilbane’s bid. Gilbane’s bid was submitted before County Executive Chris Ronayne took office. But the county decided to stick with the bid after talking with other contractors and experts and determining they were not likely to get a better price and could, in fact, end up with a higher price, given the rate of inflation, English said.
“We think we’re getting the best prices we can,” English said. “And we think we’d end up with the same team.”
Another piece of legislation would approve $971,000 to extend the owner’s representative contract with Project Management Consultants LLC to the end of May 2025. An owner’s representative, sometimes referred to as a project manager, provides technical advice, oversees deadlines and acts as a third-party project evaluator.
Though the county has in-house experts that can look over construction projects, the jail construction will be such a large project it needs help, English said.
“They really serve as an extension of county staff,” English said of Project Management Consultants LLC. “We have the expertise in house to do some of this work, but the time it takes to focus on this, we really don’t have.”
Within 12 months, county officials are hoping to have a final price on the full cost of building the jail, English said.
The cost of the new jail complex has been projected at $750 million, cleveland.com reported previously.
In September, Cuyahoga County approved spending $38.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to purchase a 72-acre site for the jail. In December, council also approved a controversial, 40-year, quarter-percent sales tax extension to finance the construction of the campus.
The construction of a new jail complex has been both controversial and complicated. It’s undisputed that conditions in the downtown jail – detailed in a 2018 report from the U.S. Marshals – are dire. However, advocates of criminal justice reform have balked at spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a jail, rather than investing more money into programs that address the root causes of crime.
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