by KOLTEN PARKER
The Hays County Commissioner’s Court picked an architect and builder for the future Precinct 2 Office Building during its regular session on Tuesday.
The pre-construction fee of $223,626 will cover the costs of schematic design, additional programming and design and development for the building.
This fee will be paid to the design-build team of Lott Brothers Construction and GSC Architects. Both companies are based in Austin.
Projected costs for the Precinct 2 building ranges from $4 million to $4.5 million, Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones said, which is at the upper end of the range previously discussed. The building in the Uptown Kyle development on Kohler’s Crossing will house offices for the commissioner, justice of the peace, adult and juvenile probation and the tax assessor-collector.
A Pct. 2 Steering Committee made up primarily of elected officials and staff narrowed down an original pool of 13 interested companies to four, which then submitted requests or proposals.
This committee consists of nine members including Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones, Justice of the Peace Pct. 2 Judge Beth Smith, Hays County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Mike Davenport and Constable Pct. 2 James Kohler.
Another committee member, Brenda Jenkins of Broaddus & Associates, said Lott Brothers and GSC were chosen because they showed the best ability to meet an aggressive construction schedule while saving Hays County money.
Lott Brothers’ previous projects include the 365,000-square-foot Seton Medical Center Williamson in Round Rock. GSC Architects has worked on projects that include the 60-acre ACC Round Rock Campus and St. David’s Parking Garage and Medical Offices Building in Austin.
CLARIFICATION: This story originally was unclear about the process by which the design-build firm was chosen. The Pct. 2 Steering Committee selected four companies from a field of 13 that expressed interest.
