Creston Council has outright cancelled the tender process for the Creston Emergency Services Building (CESB) project due to significant costs.
The two bids received by the Town of Creston were both formally rejected on Tuesday, August 18th during a Special Council Meeting.
Mayor Ron Toyota said both tender bids did not meet their expected budget.
“Both submitted bid price amounts greatly exceeded the funding available for this project and therefore, Council has chosen to cancel the tender process and officially reject the bids received for the Creston Emergency Services Building at this time.”
The respective bids for the CESB project were approximately $12.69-million and $12.99-million, not including GST. Toyota told MyCrestonNow.com they had between $6 and $7-million allocated for the building following the portion of funding from the BC Ambulance Service, $4.5-million in borrowing approved after the Town referendum, and another $1-million from reserves.
“We understand that our community, and especially proponents of the building, are disappointed with these results of the tender process for the Creston Emergency Services Building,” said Michael Moore, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Creston. “Rest assured that Town Council and Staff, along with our Technical Building Advisory Committee, Creston Fire Rescue and BC Emergency Health Services are committed to moving this project forward, within the approved budget.”
Following Council’s decision to formally reject the tenders, staff were instructed to cancel the tender process and to evaluate the budget, timeline, and other reasonable project options.
“This is an opportunity for us to review the project scope,” added Toyota. “We know that at this time, there is uncertainty in the market conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we will need to determine how that affects the overall project.”
Back in October 2019, a Request for Information and Qualifications (RFIQ) was issued out to general contractors. Five contractors were invited to submit tender bids for the project, but only two of the five pre-qualified contractors ended up submitting a big. The tender period was officially opened on July 8th and closed on August 13th.