WS Chronicle

BY TODD LUCK 

THE CHRONICLE

Renovations on Union Station should begin by year’s end after the City Council unanimously approved the project on Nov. 7.

A vote on the restoration of the historic train station was delayed when concerns were raised about the highest bidder, New Atlantic Contracting Inc., not meeting the project’s 12 percent goal on minority participation. Evon Smith, a former Minority and Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Program director with the city, told the council during its Oct. 17 meeting that she believed the goal could’ve been met based on the amount of minority contractors available for that type of work. City Council Member Derwin Montgomery then moved to hold the item. He said this week that once he had a chance to review all the documents, he was assured New Atlantic made a good faith effort to recruit minority subcontractors.

“I wanted to make sure the concerns that were raised at the previous meeting were addressed, and make sure the process was followed properly,” said Montgomery.

New Atlantic bid $11.1 million on the project, which has a $13.6 million budget. The project has 9.11 percent woman-owned subcontractors, which exceeds the M/WBE goal, and 5.91 percent minority subcontractors. The Internal M/WBE Committee and the Citizen’s M/WBE Advisory Committee found a good faith effort was made. The project was advertised on the city’s website  and 24 general contractors were notified about it. A city memo on the project stated that the “specialized nature of the historic project work” limited the subcontractors available in the various trades used in the project. Union Station is a historic train station located at 300 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

It was designed by Fellhimer & Wagner and built between 1924 and 1926.

The renovation is for all three floors of Union Station. It’ll be transformed into a transit center for buses with office and retail space, and is expected to be completed in 2018. The longterm goal is to return passenger rail service to Union Station.