Low bidder identified on Convention Center work

A joint venture of Daniel J. Keating Co. and Keating Building Construction of Philadelphia is the apparent low bidder on the first construction phase of the $700 million Convention Center expansion.

Four bids were publicly opened yesterday by the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority for the construction phase, which involves concrete pillars, foundation work, and the steel superstructure.

Keating bid $154.89 million, followed by Hunter Roberts Construction Group, of Philadelphia, which bid $163.96 million. Bedwell Co., of West Chester, bid $165.32 million, and a joint venture of Walsh Construction, of Chicago, and Buckley & Co. Inc., of Philadelphia, bid $179.57 million.

Schindler Elevator Corp., of Morristown, N.J., is the apparent low bidder to install the elevators and escalators, with a bid of $8.58 million. Kone Inc., of Thorofare, N.J., bid $12.87 million.

"What happens next is we evaluate the bids," project executive Joseph J. Resta said. The apparent low bidders have two days to submit their minority and female business-participation plans for the project.

If the apparent low bids check out, contract awards are recommended to both the state and the Convention Center Authority board, which must approve the selections.

"This happens over the next month," Resta said. Construction would begin during the summer.

The $700 million project will be funded by the state under a complex operating agreement involving the city, state and Convention Center Authority.

Bids went out in March to five prequalified bidders for the first construction phase. A.P. Construction Inc., of Blackwood, N.J., later withdrew.

Bid packages will go out in June or early July for the second and final construction phase, with selection in late August or early September, Resta said.

The project is scheduled for completion in early 2011.

After a decade of planning, designing and debate, the project is being built with revenue from the state's slot-machine parlors. The Pennsylvania legislature gave final approval in July.

The expansion, which will extend the Convention Center from 13th Street to Broad Street, between Arch and Race Streets, will give the facility about a million square feet of exhibit and meeting space, a 60 percent increase.

Dick Corp., of Pittsburgh, built the original building, which opened in 1993 and is bordered by 11th, 13th, Arch and Race Streets, with a wing over the Reading Terminal Market that extends to Market Street.

Convention officials sold the idea of enlarging the center by offering assurance that it would boost Philadelphia's visitor business by making the city more competitive with other big East Coast locations as a meeting and trade-show site.