Bellaire City Council unanimously approved a contract amendment Oct. 5 related to the city’s Public Works facility renovation project off Glenmont Drive.
The now-approved amendment will insert a guaranteed maximum price of approximately $8.22 million into Bellaire’s Construction Manager-at-Risk, or CMAR, contract with Sedalco Construction Services, Beth Jones, assistant city manager and city engineer, said.
The CMAR contract was originally authorized in September 2025.
Explained
Agenda documents show that Sedalco is slated to aid with renovations of the existing building at 5235 Glenmont Drive and create new, multipurpose office space for Public Works staff, the capital projects team and various parks and facilities staff.
Since Bellaire officials’ execution of the agreement in 2025, the guaranteed maximum price has been negotiated in accordance with a section of the CMAR contract. Sedalco’s fee will be 5.5% of the total construction cost, which is $428,472, per the presentation.
About 170 different bids were received during the bidding process for the Glenmont Drive site plans, each of which was reviewed by Sedalco prior to selection of contractors. Jones said that the roughly $8.2 million amount is the combined total of all the bids and packages.
Remember this?
During her presentation, Jones reminded City Council of the $8.7 million in bonds that the city issued earlier in the summer, which will cover the approximate $8.2 million cost.
She said that the remaining balance will be put toward Bellaire’s furniture, fixtures and equipment fund, also known as FF&E, and contingency fund.
FF&E funds cover the movable assets required to make a newly renovated space functional, such as office chairs, desks and general appliances. The latter is a reserve fund specifically set aside for unforeseen project costs that may arise as construction is happening, the city engineer explained.
Jones added that she felt confident about the city’s needs being met within the shared contract.
“The great part about a guaranteed maximum price? That’s the guaranteed maximum price," she said. "So, I don’t foresee us needing to come back to council for any additional funds. The $8.7 million in bonds should really take care of us for this entire duration.”
First steps
On Sept. 24, city officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Public Works facility with an official ceremony off Glenmont Drive.
The ceremony featured remarks from Bellaire Mayor Gus Pappas and Public Works Director Mark Velasquez. Officials in attendance included council members Todd Thurber, Catherine Lewis and Ross Gordon, as well as City Manager Sharon Citino and Jones.
During the event, project personnel and city officials gathered for commemorative hard hat and shovel photos on-site.
A long time coming
The former Public Works facility, which was located at 4337 Edith St., was damaged beyond repair during flooding in 2015. As a result, some of the city’s departments were scattered across Bellaire.
The renovation job will prioritize converting the 46,110-square-foot industrial building at 5235 Glenmont Drive into a municipal operations hub. It will mainly serve the Public Works Department, but also offer additional space for police impound operations, facilities department storage and parks and recreation field crews, Community Impact previously reported.
Community Relations Administrator Cheryl Bright confirmed in an email following the ceremony that the project’s tentative construction start date is sometime late this year, while its completion date is slated for the fourth quarter of 2027.
