During its April 24 meeting, Conroe City Council approved the request for qualifications for design and build services for Conroe Fire Station No. 8, and is beginning contract negotiations with SLI Group LLC.

The details

Fire Chief Paul Sims said $4.2 million is slated for the design and the construction of the project, which does not include any furniture or fixtures needed. The total cost should be around $5 million.

“I appreciate your due diligence on this, because the fire station that was presented to us was several million more, so I appreciate you getting the price down to 4.3 [million] or close enough that's going to make a big difference,” council member Marsha Porter said in the April 23 workshop meeting.

The new fire station will be located along FM 3083, according to city officials.

Diving in deeper

SLI Group LLC was chosen out of two other companies, LDF Construction/BRW Architects and Grossman Design Build, according to agenda documents.

A committee was formed, which consisted of staff from the purchasing and fire departments, to review the qualifications and score the request for quotes, per the agenda.“SLI Group Inc. has a proven track record of design/build and construction of multiple government facilities with a mission to stay within budget. They had several good references from multiple agencies,” Kristina Colville, Conroe's assistant director of purchasing, said in an April 8 letter.

Stay tuned

Sims said the department will begin negotiations with SLI Group LLC, and will establish timelines before coming back to City Council for a final approval on any design and construction.