Bid to work on black heritage center is under budget |
Tuesday, July 2, 2008 Sheldon S. Shafer
At long last there's good news for the planned Kentucky Center for African American Heritage: The city has found a contractor that says it can complete the center within budget. Sullivan & Cozart Inc. last week bid $5.89 million -- just under the $6 million in funding available -- to finish the major work on the one-time trolley barn complex at 18th Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. The Louisville firm probably will be awarded a contract soon that will require the work to be substantially completed by Dec. 1, said Ted Pullen, city director of public works and assets. The nonprofit foundation sponsoring the center will try to raise at least $3 million for exhibits and seed money for its initial operation, with the hope of having the center open by mid-2009, said Christie McCravy, chairwoman of the foundation board. "It has been overwhelmingly frustrating having it (the project) just sitting there. This is wonderful news," McCravy said of a bid coming in under budget. "Now we can start working with the city … to get the structures in place, and we can kick off our fundraising campaign." The heritage center, which has been on hold since December 2005, when the state questioned how federal money assigned to the project was being spent, could help spur redevelopment in the Russell neighborhood. So far about $17 million in public and private money has been spent on the project, which is about two-thirds finished. The city last week opened a second round of construction bids, after an initial round in mid-June produced two bids, which both exceeded the center's budget. Pullen said the city pared back the work specifications in the second round of bidding, including dropping the landscaping and some finishing touches. In addition to Sullivan & Cozart's low bid, the two companies that bid the first time submitted offers on the revised construction package. Robert Mattingly & Sons bid $7.3 million and Martin Construction $7.5 million. Ryan Downs, Sullivan & Cozart's project manager, didn't return phone calls. A state audit found no criminal wrongdoing on the work done so far on the heritage center but found some sloppy accounting. About $5.5 million of an initial $10 million federal highway grant set aside for the center is still available, and the new city budget includes an additional $500,000 to complete the center's construction. State officials administering the federal money have agreed to provide half of the $5.5 million in the short term, and the other half after Oct. 1, when the new federal fiscal year starts, Pullen said. Pullen said he expects the state and federal officials to sign off on awarding the construction contract to Sullivan in a week or so, with the work to start soon thereafter. The city owns the old four-building trolley barn complex and is leasing it to the center foundation. "We're now ready to restart this project that has long been stalled," said Chris Poynter, a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Abramson. Poynter noted that the city in recent years has invested heavily in new housing and physical improvements in Russell. The private sector has also invested in extensive housing and other development, he said, adding that the completed heritage center stands to be a catalyst for additional investment. The partly completed center "has just been sitting there year after year," said Victor Davidson, a barber at the New T&B Classic Cuts shop across Muhammad Ali Boulevard from the project. "A lot of customers ask when it's going to be finished." When it is, Davidson said, "it will be good for all of us." McCravy said that when work resumes it will be a sign to potential donors of progress. She said the foundation has some tentative pledges that it hopes it can affirm. The project also may be eligible for federal tax credits, which could translate into low-interest loan money, she said. The exhibits have been designed and await construction. They are to focus on story lines of African Americans' progress in Kentucky since before the Civil War and to feature achievements of Louisville and Kentucky minorities. Planned facilities include an auditorium, a great hall for the primary exhibits, a pavilion with offices, ticketing and gift shop, an education center with classrooms, space to rent for catered affairs, parking, galleries for traveling exhibits and performance space. The center is eventually expected to have a courtyard. A business plan forecasts that at least 50,000 people a year will visit the center, a figure McCravy said she considers conservative. She predicted the center, which will have an annual budget of about $3 million that will need to be subsidized by donations, "will surprise a lot of people about how well it is received by the community at large."
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