MANSFIELD – Cheaper. And faster.

Those were the thoughts Thursday when the Richland County Board of Commissioners awarded two courthouse renovation contracts totaling $2,149,865 to Imhoff Construction Services Inc. of Orrville.

One project is to build a fourth Common Pleas Courtroom and the other is a multi-story renovation of the Richland County Courthouse, including a new Land Bank office on the first floor of the building. five floors.

The projects had been estimated at a combined $3.5 million by the designers with a construction schedule that could total 13 months if completed one after the other.

But because Imhoff, which had submitted the lowest bids for both projects, is now managing both, this means that both can be done simultaneously. With work likely beginning in December or January, it could be completed by the end of next summer, officials said.

Brad Maurer of Maurer Architectural Design Studio and Craig Christie of Karpinski Engineering designed both projects. They reviewed the bids for the two projects launched in recent weeks and recommended that both projects be awarded to Imhoff.

“We did some of our usual research into the company and checked its credentials. We called a few architects that Imhoff had worked with before. They had very good things to say about Imhoff. We see no reason not to recommend them as the successful contractor for these two projects,” Maurer said.

All but approximately $6,000 of construction costs will be funded by the county’s remaining share of American Rescue Plan Act funds. Commissioners initially thought he might demand between $1.5 million and $2 million of his capital funds.

But the lower price of the work means that almost all of the projects will be financed by ARPA.

Competition among contractors has helped keep prices low, according to Maurer.

“We had more bidders for this project than for the previous one. I think it’s a good interior and winter renovation project. So I think they sharpened their pencils a little bit and got some pretty competitive bids,” Maurer said.

“The other thing that’s great is that the bidding was very tight. We had no reason to worry,” he said.

In order to meet ARPA guidelines, the money must be appropriated by the end of 2024 and all work must be completed by the end of 2026.

The larger of the two projects was awarded for $1,5982,492. This will involve renovating the first floor, “L1”, to create new offices for the Richland County Land Bank, a new employee break room and an employee exercise room.

It will also renovate common areas on four of the five floors as well as nine of the building’s ten bathrooms. One of the 10 bathrooms was already redone when the second floor, “L2,” was renovated earlier this year as part of the project to create new offices for the county court clerk.

“It’s going to be a fun 2025 in this building,” Commissioner Tony Vero said with a laugh.

The new clerk’s office is scheduled to open later this month, months later than expected due to a delay in the air treatment needed to complete the project.

The cost of the fourth courtroom project was $551,373. It was requested by General Division Judges Brent Robinson and Phil Naumoff in 2021, citing the increased pace of hearings and trials.

The justices requested that space currently used by the Clerk of Courts be transferred to the General Division to serve as an additional courtroom and two conference rooms.

The judges said the division has three magistrates using a single courtroom, presiding over bench trials, various civil hearings, criminal prosecutions, bond hearings, stalking hearings and other events.

Additionally, the justices said the administration building “was not built to accommodate the number of jurors required for the court’s large caseload.”