Construction Work to Finally Begin On Orange County Government Center

GOSHEN—Construction work is now expected to begin in earnest very shortly on the redevelopment of the shuttered Orange County Government Center here.

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus signed off on more than $52.2 million in contracts for the project. All winning bidders were the low bids for their respective work and will perform their services under a Project Labor Agreement negotiated with the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council of Newburgh. The construction manager for the government center project is Holt Construction Corp. of Pearl River.

The winning bidder on the general construction component of the project was Rizzo Electric Corp. at $36,264,000, the HVAC contract went to Armistead Mechanical at $7.3 million; Lombardo Plumbing, Heating & Cooling was the low bidder for the plumbing work at $3,290,267 and Mehl Electric secured the low bid for the electrical work at $5,376,350.

Orange County Executive Neuhaus said that he has been attempting to expedite the project that involves some reconstruction and some new office space. He said the project will likely take about 18 months to complete.

While the County Executive favored the complete demolition of the Paul Rudolph-designed complex, the Orange County Legislature eventually decided to undertake a partial rehab of the complex along with some new construction called the BB+ design. The plan involves a gut rehabilitation of Division 1 and 3 buildings and the demolition of Division 2, which is the structure adjacent to the back parking lot at the existing Government Center. The plan also calls for the construction of an addition to the Division 3 site. The size of the renovated Government Center would total 180,000 square feet. Demolition work on the project, which is projected to cost in total approximately $79 million to finish, has been completed.

The Government Center has been closed since September 2011 after sustaining significant water damage due to flooding from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Since then, the County Legislature considered and eventually rejected a complete demolition of the property at more than $140 million as well as a private purchase of the property. Since its closure, Orange County government operations have been relocated to mostly leased space in and around Goshen.

Photo Caption: Orange County Government Center

John Jordan
Editor, Real Estate In-Depth