Wenatchee City Hall Project Going Back Out to Bid

The City of Wenatchee's City Hall remodeling project will go back out to bid after six months of waiting for construction prices to fall.

The project previously went out to bid in August and resulted in bids roughly $3 million more than what was expected.

City Council Member Keith Huffaker did not agree with other council members and staff who think the City has been 'camping out', or holding back on the project, long enough.

"I disagree. I don't think this is the right time." Huffaker said, "We may be camping out, but we're doing a whole lot better camping out than a lot of our businesses in town are doing. I think this is totally the wrong message, that 'we're going to build a nice City Hall while you guys scrape to get by.' I am totally opposed to going out to bid."

When the City last received bids, staff was projecting a $1.5 million loss to its General Fund balance because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, several windfalls to the budget changed the City's position. Wenatchee's sales tax revenue rebounded in the second half of the year and ended 2020 similar to 2019. The City also spent about $1 million less than expected on jail fees because the Chelan County Regional Jail began rejecting certain types of inmates once the pandemic began. Lastly, Wenatchee sold a water right to Lineage Logistics for $1 million in May.

Mayor Frank Kuntz said that while the bidding climate is about the same as it was in August, it's time to explore bids again.

"We're in the middle of COVID, but … do we have the money? Is it ever going to get cheaper to build this thing?" explained Kuntz, "It's never going to get cheaper. So either we get good bids and we (accept a bid), or we (decide to) put it off for another year and come back and the costs are going to be 6% higher again, and we would have earned less than 1% on our money and we keep going backwards by half a million dollars a year."

Kuntz added that the remodeling isn't just about providing a good place for people to work, it's also a chance to make residents proud for the next 50 years.

If a bid is accepted, the City Hall remodeling project will happen all at once. Council had previously discussed the option of splitting the work into phases, but decided against it because they intend to rent out the building's first and second floor.