Northborough’s new fire station is proposed for 61-65 West Main Street. (Photo/Laura Hayes)
NORTHBOROUGH – The figure for the Northborough Fire Station project to be presented at Town Meeting has been determined — $41,364,992.
Colliers’ Tim Alix presented the figure during the Fire Station Building Committee meeting on Aug. 28.
“As we’ve added things and there’s been decisions made on scope, added in the geothermal, made some decisions on the retaining wall, the numbers have shifted a little bit, but we’ve been able to reduce that range,” said Alix.
The future fire station is proposed for 61-65 West Main St. and plans call for a 30,000-square-foot station
When the figures were presented as part of the schematic design in late February, the project was estimated to cost between $43 to $49.9 million. After the committee supported a geothermal system, the range narrowed, and it narrowed further with the design development review.
As the project has progressed to the construction document phase, the estimators had more to look at and place numbers to versus a contingency, Alix said.
They have come up with an estimated total project cost of $44,863,992. This includes an estimated $33.4 million for construction; $905,000 for furnishings, fixtures and equipment; $6.8 million for fees and expenses and $3.7 in contingency.
However, this figure also includes the original Town Meeting appropriation for the project of $3.5 million, resulting in a required appropriation of $41,364,992 at Town Meeting this fall.
“The takeaway is we’ve been maintaining this range in this roughly $45 million project cost since February since we’ve started talking about values from the original schematic design estimate,” said Alix.
The committee noted that, in theory, Town Meeting could approve reducing this figure. Fire Chief David Parenti said the fire station is designed to the $41.4 price tag.
“I’ve seen line items zeroed out [at Town Meeting], but that essentially does the same thing — it kills the project at that point,” said Parenti.
He said just because Town Meeting appropriates this amount for the project “doesn’t mean it can’t come in at $40 million or $39 million,” noting that the Lincoln Street School project came in $1 million under budget.
“We’re setting everything up to have the most competitive bid possible,” said committee member Mitch Cohen. “We’re appropriating the money first so that hopefully more contractors will bid because they know it’s a real project. … We’re putting ourselves in the best position possible for it to be substantially less than that, but we won’t know until probably the early part of 2025 exactly what it will be and then further refined throughout the project.”
Committee members also noted that the project is expected to get rebates, including for the geothermal system and electric vehicle charging stations.
For more information on the project, including a video series, visit https://www.town.northborough.ma.us/fire-rescue-emergency-management/pages/northborough-fire-station-project.
