Mall project could come in under budget

With bids coming in for the various pieces of the Downtown Mall restoration, Charlottesville officials are saying the overhaul could feasibly cost 10 percent to 15 percent less than the amount allocated.
“If everything holds and the remaining things come in like we think they are, we’ll be well under budget,” said Jim Tolbert, director of Charlottesville’s Neighborhood Development Services.

Having set aside $7.5 million for the project, cost savings could potentially reach $1.12 million. Tolbert said the electrical costs in the mall’s revamp, such as fixing lights and wiring underneath the bricks, was the most expensive component. He would not elaborate on specifics — saying that staff would not want to commit to any savings in case unanticipated costs arise — but figures from the city’s Procurement and Risk Management Services show that the contract amount for the mall’s lighting and electrical work is $775,244.
The bids for the mall’s bricks, which sparked some of the project’s most heated
debates, and the accompanying masonry work came in at $357,000 and $555,000, respectively, though those amounts do not include demolition costs and the city is still waiting on the vendor’s signed contract and submittals. Contracts for some other items have not yet been inked, including the refurbishment of the mall’s fountains and plumbing.
“Most of them will be [finalized] before the end of December,” Tolbert said.
Construction is slated to begin the first week in January and conclude by the first weekend in May. But the city is still receiving complaints that the project should not be done at all.

Last week, Brandon Collins sent City Manager Gary O’Connell and the City Council a letter on behalf of more than 30 people with a laundry list of objections — among them, that the project is too heavy a burden on taxpayers and that restaurants should be allowed to set up their springtime cafes when their part of the mall is no longer under construction.
“The estimated $7.5 million cost of replacing the bricks will put an undue burden on taxpayers at a time when city government anticipates a budget crunch — perhaps even a shortfall — for next year,” Collins wrote, describing the move as “reckless, and hard to fathom.”
City officials say that with the project this far along, it would be fiscally irresponsible to turn back because of the number of contracts that would have to be canceled.
“I just don’t see how that helps the economy,” Mayor Dave Norris said. “It would be foolhardy at this point to cancel all these contracts.”
The original cafe proposal, which said restaurants would be limited to 700 square feet of outdoor space and that no cafe could be set up before the entire project was finished, was received poorly by many of the mall’s long-established restaurants — such as Sal’s, Miller’s and Blue Light Grill, whose outdoor areas each already exceed more than 800 square feet.

Eliza Dilello, Blue Light’s general manager, said she was happy to know that staff is proposing to do away with those ideas.
“I think the majority of the downtown community was unhappy with the fact that that was going to happen,” she said. “There was a general feeling that it didn’t matter what was fair or not.”
Councilors will receive an update on the mall restoration and vote on the cafe spaces’ rules at tonight’s meeting.