Contract for new pharmacy building goes to Boston company

11/19/09 - Suffolk Education, a unit of Suffolk Construction Co., was awarded a contract to manage the construction of the University of Rhode Island's new College of Pharmacy building.The contract went to Suffolk out of their Boston, Mass. location as the lowest bidder of $45 million, beating out URI's usual construction company, Gilbane Inc.

The project is funded by general obligation bonds, which were approved by the Rhode Island voters two years ago.

Gilbane was the construction manager of risk for the Center for Bio Technology and Life Sciences. They were also the program manager for a number of other projects on campus including Garrity, Wiley and Eddy resident halls, the building of the Ryan Center and Boss Ice Arena and the renovation of Hope Commons.

A program manger means that the company acts as URI's construction staff during the construction, according to Director of Capital Projects Paul DePace.

This is the first time the university will work with Suffolk Education.

"It was decided rather than going [with] construction management and risks like we did on the CBLS building this project for pharmacy will go to general contractors," DePace said. "That is a different way of doing business; a construction manager is more of a partner with the owner in delivering a project. The general contractor is a more adversarial form of contracting."

This September nine construction companies submitted their cost proposals to URI. Suffolk ended up being the lowest bidder.

"They were [the] considerably low [bidder] on the project. DePace said. "Now, to someone in the construction business when someone is away from the pack you are always concerned they made a mistake or missed something, but frankly you will never really know."

Once the school has a low bidder, the university calls them in to meet with the design and project team to make sure they understand all of the details that are necessary to build the building. They also review the bid proposal to make sure nothing in the plans was skipped.

"We went through [for] a couple hours with them and they answered all the questions positively. They did not miss anything and therefore had everything down," DePace said. "Whether they really did or not, or simply decided to eat something they might have forgotten for their own purpose we don't know."

The $45 million bid from Suffolk was formed by reviewing detailed plans from the architect of the project. The architect was Payette of Boston, Mass. The plans were two years in the making. Suffolk must build a building that conforms to the documents and is within their $45 million proposal.

"They can't go over budget because we have a contract that's says this is the number we [Suffolk] bid to build this building," DePace said.

DePace attributed Suffolk's low bid to the economy and the pressure for these companies to just stay afloat.

"Right now the market is very hungry," DePace said. "There is not a lot of construction going on, so this is the best time to get projects on the streets for bids because there are not a lot of bids to compete with."

Despite the change in companies and the low bid presented DePace is confident the job will be completed and done well.

"We are satisfied that they are a competent construction firm," DePace said. He continued that the school has seen their good work and that they were an aggressive firm.

Vice President of Suffolk Education, Angus Leary, said, "We are very excited to be working with the University of Rhode Island and delivering a first-class facility that will allow the University's world-class doctor of pharmacy program to grow.