City school officials will find out how much the new Commerce High School will cost this Thursday.
Thirty-two sets of bids on everything from concrete work to structural steel will be opened starting at 3 p.m. in the Gainesville office of Charles Black Construction Company.
The hope is to come in under $17 million — including the $1.4 million already spent on the “practice gym” already erected.
“I feel very confident we will be close to that,” said superintendent James E. “Mac” McCoy.
Project manager Rod Nix concurred.
“Our goal is to come in under Mac’s budget number,” he said. The chances look good, but the construction industry is never an exact science.”
Sixty-eight subcontractors had picked up plans at one Gainesville location, Nix said. Plans are available at other sites as well.
“We’ve been doing this a long time, and this is probably one of the highest interest levels we’ve seen at any time,” Nix said.
It will take about a week to verify the bids, and up to two weeks to reach a contract with the board of education setting a guaranteed maximum price, according to Nix. Then the work begins, starting with securing the site and demolishing the gymnasium.
Construction is expected to take 18 months, but the overall project — including the demolition of existing buildings once the new facility is done — will take 24, Nix said.
The building should be completed by late spring or early summer of 2011. Demolition will occur over the summer, and students and teachers will occupy the facility that fall.
