THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502150479
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The city has hired private engineering consultants to finish renovating the Granby Municipal Building, which is a year behind schedule and an estimated $1.5 million over budget.
The nearly $200,000 contract with a private firm acknowledges that the city bit off more than it could chew when it had its own staff supervise the restoration of the old Rice's department store into city office space.
Or as Councilman Mason Andrews put it, the cost and time overruns proved ``socialism does not work'' and the city should avoid doing jobs that could be farmed out to the private sector.
The city now estimates it will cost $7.3 million to finish the building which was originally budgeted at $5.8 million. The new completion target is November, almost two years past the original completion goal.
The city has hired Abiouness, Cross and Bradshaw Inc., consulting structural engineers, to plan and supervise the building's completion. They were among 13 firms that answered the city's request for proposals.
Alfred E. Abiouness, president of the company, spoke to the council Tuesday.
The firm, located on Colley Avenue in Norfolk, has been active in renovating old buildings downtown. It supervised the restoration of the brick Life Savings building on Main Street, and did engineering work for the Tidewater Community College campus on Granby Street.
Abiouness said Tuesday that the firm would have to do more work to determine whether the $7.3 million now estimated was enough to finish the four-story building.
Abiouness has hired an architectural firm and an engineering firm to help plan and supervise construction. The city is paying Abiouness $92,400, and the engineering and architectural firms $105,000.
Council members and union representatives have criticized the quality of the city's work. But Abiouness said he found no evidence of poor construction.
``They have done a tremendous job on the building, contrary to public opinion,'' Abiouness said Tuesday. ``There are just a lot of problems you run into in rehabbing an old building.''
Councilman Herbert Collins, who first produced evidence of problems in the building's construction, said he is still waiting for a final price tag. Councilman Randy Wright wants the consultant to determine how much a private firm would have charged to do the job from the beginning.
Eventually, several city departments and agencies will be housed in the building. by CNB