Lakeway City Council’s Oct. 17 actions paved the way to develop schematic drawings—including renderings—of the city’s proposed police station as well as a firm cost commitment for the estimated $16.9 million project before voters weigh in on the development in May.
The price of the proposed project’s construction was estimated at $12,086,000 in the Oct. 17 meeting documents. However, the city documents did not include a breakdown that showed how Lakeway reached that $12 million pricetag. Through an Oct. 25 Freedom of Information Act Request with Lakeway, Community Impact Newspaper gained an Oct. 12 document stating the project would actually cost $16,909,468 (see sidebar for budget breakdown).
During the meeting, council authorized Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain to negotiate and execute an agreement with Brinkley Sargent and Wiginton Architects to design schematic drawings and provide a reliable cost estimate for a new police station.
Although the fee will be negotiated and is undetermined at this point, the architecture cost will likely be in the $1 million range, City Manager Steve Jones said.
Council members also authorized Bain to negotiate and execute an agreement with SpawGlass as the pre-construction manager at risk, guaranteeing a maximum budget that the police station cannot exceed.
Jones said SpawGlass’ fee is firm at $15,000 for the pre-construction work.
“[We] have to do at least a schematic design phase so we can get a price for this building so we can tell the voters what [a police station] is going to cost,” Jones said. “It’s kind of a hen-and-egg problem because the further the [contractors] go [in the design], the more we get invested with them before we go to the voters. But [the] better number we can give to the voter and the better description of the building—the end product—we can give to the voters. We don’t want to go to the voters and ask for too much.”
In August 2015, staff proposed a 46,859-square-foot justice center complex for $19.7 million that included a police station and courthouse. In June, the project was decreased to a 29,268-square-foot police station at a $16.6 million projected cost.
Lakeway City Council agreed to spend up to $500,000 of general funds for the pre-construction services related to the proposed police station until bond funds become available.
The city will be financially impacted from the reimbursement if the voters do not pass the bond in May, Finance Director Julie Oakley said.
