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After plans to construct a county health-facilities
building met several roadblocks, Springfield developer Mike Pittman, who
initially entered a bid to develop the project, now says he no longer wants
any part of it. Earlier this month, the Sangamon County Board voted
to cut off negotiations with the original winning bidder, Springfield East
Venture, to construct the $7 million building after the two sides could not
settle on a price. Pittman’s offer of $9.7 million was the second
lowest after Springfield East Venture’s bid of $6.2 million. A third
company, South Grand & Associates, backed by Prairieland Development
owner Larry Quinn, submitted the final bid of $10.2 million. The proposed building would enable the county to
consolidate three operations into one. The health department now runs
facilities at 3130 Chatham Rd., 1415 E. Jefferson St., and its
headquarters, 2501 N. Dirksen Pkwy. Pittman believes that as the next-lowest bidder, his
company, Pittman Enterprises, should have been awarded the job
automatically. “The whole thing stinks. There was no
transparency, in my opinion,” he says. County administrator Ryan McCrady says that going
back to Pittman or Quinn did not make sense because so much time has
elapsed since May, the original deadline for bids.
Instead, the county will now issue a new set of
requests — the first for a piece of land that is either vacant or has
buildings on it that can be demolished and a second one for the
building’s construction. McCrady says that breaking the project into
two parts will attract interest from more firms.
Quinn, who hasn’t decided whether he will bid
again, says he believes that the county’s decision to start from
scratch is prudent.
“The county did everything appropriately. They
thought they had a good facility at a low price, and that’s good
government,” he says. The building will have space for everything from core
services such as immunizations and disease testing to health education, veterinary services,
laboratory facilities, and the human resources and business offices. McCrady says that he expects the project to be
completed by the end of 2008.
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2007.
