More than a year over original deadline, the striking new station is still not able to be used
by Bill Davis | News Editor
More than a year ago, West Of Free Press ran a story about the already-late Station 11 fire station on Savannah Highway adjacent to the Charleston Nine Memorial Park dedicated to the firefighters who died in the Sofa Super Store blaze in 2007.
At that time, city officials and the venerable general contractor responsible for the project, NBM Construction, estimated it would be completed by May. The city construction manager overseeing the project said then that the fire station was between 60 and 65 percent complete at that time.
Apparently, they weren’t specific enough as to which “May” they were talking about, as the project yet again missed its “substantial completion” date deadline, which would signify it was 95-percent complete.
As of press time, the fire station was still not finished, and no one at City Hall could offer a more specific time frame as to when it will open other than sometime in the “next few months.”
The city has been forced to rent back the old fire station the new one is supposed
to replace, from Baker Motors, to the tune of $102,500 so far, according to officials. Once the new station is completed, the city will leave the old station so the automotive group can expand yet again.
More importantly, the city has taken the stern action reaching out “multiple times” to the insurance company that issued the completion bond on the project, according to Jason Kronsberg, the director of the city’s parks department.
Construction bonds are purchased to make sure if a general contractor is unable or unwilling to finish a project, a second company would be brought in to finish the project at no more expense to the purchaser, the city in this case.
Another fire station in the Town of James Island, a much less ornate and ballyhooed project, was started and completed in the same amount of time.
This may cause some voices to cry out that City Hall is once again ignoring West Ashley, as many did when the Waring Senior Center was completed six months behind schedule. But those voices should also know that the new municipal police forensics lab building on Bees Ferry opened recently, on time and on budget, according to Kronsberg. So it’s not a case of the city ignoring West Ashley. This delay seems to be falling on the shoulders of the contractor for the project.
The original completion date for the project was the end of November 2019 at a budgeted amount of $5.6 million. The total charge has increased slightly to $5.9 million due to agreed-upon charges to relocate power and gas lines to the building.
But that amount could shrink mightily once the fire station is finally completed as the general contractor is being charged $1,200 every day it’s late. There are 495 days between the current due date on the contract, Jan. 22, 2020 and June 1 of this year.
If the contract counts every day of the week, then the general contractor could be assessed just shy of $600,000. Kronsberg said the city, per the contract, has retained the final 10 percent of payments to NBM until the project is completed. Kronsberg said that the city’s construction manager on the project has refused to pay out for uncompleted work.
That would be roughly $600,000 currently, the same amount that’s been withheld. So, any work going forward could be coming out of NBM’s pocket.
NBM president Will Danielson, who agreed to speak on the matter last year, did not return a series of calls for comment for this story over a two-week period. Many city officials, elected and otherwise, acknowledge that the past year has been a unique one for the construction industry.
2020 saw both COVID shutdowns, raw material manufacture slowdowns, and then the white-hot heating up of the local construction market in 2021 as contractors struggled to keep crews onsite to finish jobs as more and more lucrative ones popped up across the region.
City Councilman Peter Shahid, who chairs council’s public safety committee, said the city “wants to work with the general contractor going forward to complete the job,” and that at this point the city does not “want to switch horses midstream.”
Shahid sees the importance of the new station going beyond its lauded design, which pays homage to the nine firefighters who died at the famous blaze.
“One thing about a fire station is that it never, ever closes; it’s got to be open 24-7 with no days off and fully staffed at all times to provide life and property-saving service to the public,” said Shahid. “We have to make sure it’s of the highest quality and grade for that kind of use.”
Shahid stressed that the public has not been put in jeopardy due to the delays, as there is a fully-staffed and fully-equipped station at the original Station 11. Karl Brady, the first-term City Councilman whose district includes the station, said the construction delays have been discussed in executive session, which means not yet for public ears.
Like everyone else at City Hall, Brady said he is frustrated by the continual delays on this because the fire station is supposed to not only honor the fallen but provide services to the community.
Mayor John Tecklenburg has weighed in on the issue, saying that before the city’s procurement team would consider working with any company, NBM included, it would “consider a company’s past performances when deciding which firm to recommend.”
That may not bode well for NBM, which has completed a host of major projects for the city and community going back to its inception in 1986. When asked if the city should offer the general contractor some relief on delay penalties due to aforementioned reasons, the mayor did not rush to throw NBM under the fire truck. “As with any project of this magnitude, all kinds of variables and factors will be assessed at the completion of construction, but these sorts of questions can only be addressed after the project is complete,” said Tecklenburg.
The mayor was more effusive on what completion of the fire station could mean. “[T]his building will be architecturally significant for the future of West Ashley, and serve as a memorial for the nine brave firefighters who died tragically at the Sofa Super Store site next door,” said Tecklenburg.
“Getting this iconic building done right was critically important. That is why, in this case, the city was willing to work with the contractor through unusual delays to ensure it meets the high standard we wish to achieve.”
The question remains: just how many more days until that standard is met?
