The Escambia County Commission voted unanimously during the Thursday, Aug. 10 Committee of the Whole workshop to recommend Whitesell-Green/Caddell Joint Venture as the No. 1 design-build entity for the new Escambia County correctional facility.
The board also voted to authorize staff and the selected design-build entity to utilize Owner Direct Purchases. This is a method whereby the county acts as the pass-through agency for a contractor on subcontracts or other agreements to purchase material. This will allow the county to purchase items associated with this project tax free at an estimated $2 million to $3 million savings.
Actions by the board at today's workshop will be scheduled for ratification at the next regular BCC meeting on Thursday, Aug. 17 and are not final until that time. The public will be allowed to comment before the vote finalizing this selection. All commission meetings can be viewed live on MyEscambia.com/ectv, channel 98 for Spectrum, Cox Cable and Mediacom (Pensacola Beach) subscribers and channel 99 for AT&T U-verse subscribers and are available on ECTV On Demand.
On Tuesday, Aug. 8 the board heard request for proposal presentations for jail design-build services from the two final short-listed firms, W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company and Whitesell-Green/Caddell Joint Venture. Each firm's presentation, conceptual drawings, video renditions and redacted proposals are available here. The presentation replay is available here.
