CR Prairie picks CANCO as construction manager

4 years, 6 months ago

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The College Community School District Board of Education voted June 15 to select Carl A. Nelson & Company to serve as construction manager agent (CMa) for a $42 million school building project.

CANCO was one of three finalists for the project, which represents the first-ever use of the construction management project delivery method by the expansive and growing College CSD, aka Cedar Rapids Prairie, which is located on a campus south of Cedar Rapids and serves the communities of Ely, Fairfax, Swisher and Walford, as well as the surrounding rural area.

Board member Greg Kelsey, who made the motion to select Carl A. Nelson & Company, and joined the majority in a 6-1 vote to make it official, said he appreciated the consistency shown by CANCO's project team throughout the selection process, from the initial request for proposal through meetings with the board and answering follow-up questions from those meetings.

"Performance matters. How we perform on other projects helped us win this one."

— Chris Smith, Vice President of Construction, Carl A. Nelson & Company

 

 

 

 

 

The new, 180,000 square-foot building, which is to be constructed on a greenfield site adjacent to the district's existing campus, will serve students in grades five and six. About 5,800 students attend College CSD. The project is part of a larger, $75 million expansion and renovation plan.

With its selection, Carl A. Nelson & Company will begin pre-construction work as soon as a construction management contract is finalized by the school board. CANCO will work with OPN Architects on the pre-construction planning, which is expected to continue through the winter of 2020-21. Construction is expected to start in the spring or summer of 2021, with Project Manager Perry Hines and Project Superintendent William "Bill" Curler — a resident of Cedar Rapids — leading the project for CANCO.

Carl A. Nelson & Company is an experienced construction manager in school and healthcare projects. CANCO has completed or is working on 38 CMa projects for Iowa clients, including 15 school projects. The company is currently at work as CMa on a $42.6 million, 180,000-square-foot high school in Sioux Center, Iowa; a $6.5 million high school renovation project in Shenandoah, Iowa; and is providing pre-construction and pre-bond services as CMa for the IKM-Manning School District in Manning, Iowa, which has a referendum scheduled for September. CANCO also is engaged in facilities assessment and master planning with the Fairfield, Keokuk and Washington school districts in Iowa.

Recommendations from references in those and other Iowa communities helped point the College CSD board members toward selecting CANCO for their project, said Vice President of Construction Chris Smith.

"Performance matters," said Smith, who will be CANCO's project executive during pre-construction and construction. "How we perform on other projects helped us win this one."