Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe federal government is hoping the third time’s the charm for a new FBI field office in Indianapolis.
The U.S. General Services Administration said today it has awarded the deal to Ohio-based Fedcar Company Ltd., which plans to build a $39.8-million campus on 14 acres near Interstate 465 and Allisonville Road in Castleton.
The deal has been a bureaucratic mess since the government first awarded the contract in March 2007 to Missouri-based BC Development Co., a government contract specialist that developed FBI offices in Alabama and Florida.
BC had proposed building on the same site in Castleton, despite the fact that Fedcar’s parent, Carnegie Management and Development Corp., held the first contract on the property. When the companies failed to reach terms, the government reopened the project for new bids.
In December 2007, the GSA selected locally based Duke Realty Corp. to build the facility at another location, the Woodland Corporate Park along Interstate 465 between 71st and 86th streets.
But Fedcar, which has built FBI field offices in Ohio, Illinois and Tennessee, wasn’t ready to concede the lucrative government deal. So the company took its case to the Government Accountability Office, and won.
The current project calls for a complex of three buildings: a three-story office building, an enclosed parking garage and a separate maintenance building. The building initially will have about 90,000 square feet of space, a big boost from the FBI’s 55,000-square-foot space in the Minton-Capehart Federal Building downtown.
But the original plans called for more space, about 110,000 square feet, at a cost of about $2 million less.
The new deal, over a 15-year term, will pay Fedcar about $65.3 million. The same period in the Duke deal would have cost the government $64.3 million. And the contract with BC called for payments of $54.2 million.
The GSA says work on the site could begin as early as July, with full construction slated to begin in the fall. Completion is scheduled for December 2010.
Is the third award of the project the final word on the project?
“I can’t say that,” said GSA Spokesman David Wilkinson.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.