Maximum price for Magnolia ISD Intermediate School No. 3 set at $47.6M

Editors note: The story was updated to reflect the guaranteed maximum price is $5 million under budget. A comment from the district has also been added.

The guaranteed maximum price for Magnolia ISD Intermediate School No. 3 was set to $47.6 million during a May 15 Magnolia ISD school board meeting.

Tim Bruner, Magnolia ISD executive director of facilities, said during the meeting the price for the district's third Intermediate school will be $47.6 million. Bruner said Steward Builders is the construction manager at risk, and also built Magnolia Intermediate and Bear Branch Intermediate.

During the meeting, Bruner said the guaranteed maximum price for Magnolia Intermediate was around $23 million, and Bear Branch Intermediate was $21 million—Bruner said they were working with an existing building. Bruner said the reason this project is more expensive is due to the increased cost of materials.

“There’s probably a number of reasons this project is [costing what it costs]. A lot of it is being driven by market costs. ... This is a repeat project. I think that makes it a little more conducive to costs coming down, and also we are building on a site that’s already been built on,” Bruner said. “I think those are the primary factors that have brought this price in where it’s at.”

Executive Director of Communications Denise Meyers said in a May 19 email the price comes in $5 million under budget with the cost per square foot coming in lower than expected. In addition to costs stabilizing, Meyers said the construction savings is due to using a similar design as Magnolia Intermediate and the site has already been developed.

According to previous reporting, the intermediate school was included in a $232 million bond package that passed on Nov. 8.