Building 3 project now out for bid; Tomblin seeks $9m in funding

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is seeking $9 million in his proposed state budget to help pay for the renovation of Building 3 at the state capitol complex.

Department of Administration Secretary Jason Pizatella told members of the House Finance Committee Wednesday after a several year delay the project is ready to go out to bid.

“The design is complete. The Capitol Building Commission has approved the design and we are ready to go to bid, to put it out on the street for bid,” Pizatella said.

In fact, the project was put out to bid Wednesday. A pre-bid meeting is scheduled for Feb. 19 with the bid opening set for March 26.

Money for the project has been showing up in the state budget for the last few years but it’s been shifted to other projects because of the delay in the Building 3 plans.

“Over the last five years other aspects of our Capitol Complex Master Plan have been implemented and so some of the money we had ‘earmarked’ for Building 3 has been shifted to other expenses aligned with our plan while we redesigned it,” Pizatella.

The redesign was completed last October. It took place after the first round of bids on the project in 2011came in $6 million above the estimated $27 million for the project. Pizatella said that caused changes.

“At that time (before the first bid) we had the Auditor, the Treasurer, essentially a different agency-tenant mix that required a lot of technology, a lot of security, a lot of extra things that drove up the cost of the building,” according to Pizatella.

The new plans have agencies with the Department of Commerce to be the next tenants of Building 3 including WorkForce WV, the state DNR, Division of Labor, Development Office and Division of Tourism.

Pizatella said the goal is get the project to bid and begin the work.

“It’s still one of the governor’s number-1 priorities for the master plan. So this request (of $9 million), if approved by the legislature, would finally allow us to implement it and hopefully I won’t have to discuss it again,” Pizatella told the finance committee.

Building 3 opened in 1951 and was known for years as the DMV building with a counter were state residents would go to get their driver’s licenses. It closed in Dec. 2010 before the 2011 bidding.