Falls Twp. Rejects Bids For Municipal Complex Renovation, Borrows $20 Million For Work

The Falls Township Board of Supervisors have rejected all bids for their multi-million dollar municipal complex renovation project.

The supervisors voted Monday evening to throw out the received bids because most of them had a “fatal defect,” according to solicitor Michael Clarke.

The problem was that many of the bidders on aspects of the project did not attach a bid-bond sheet, which is required by law, Clarke said.

The township received only one general contractor bid and that bid was defective, Clarke said.

The supervisors voted to allow the township to rebid the project and get the new bid documents out within the next 10 days.

The supervisors are expected to vote on the new bids at the July meeting.

Supervisors Chairman Jeff Dence said the rejection of the bids “may slow down” the project and delay the expected 2024 completion date.

Clarke told the supervisors he will make sure it is impressed upon bidders that they need the bid-bond sheets.

The supervisors were also told several general contractors asked questions and picked up information on the project, but only one submitted a bid in the end.

“We’re going to keep a close eye on that during the process … we hope to get more general contractor bids,” Clarke said.

Also at the meeting, the supervisors approved the issuance of $20,055,000 in bonds to cover the municipal complex project costs.

Christopher Gibbons, the founder and principal of Concord Public Financial Advisors Inc., told the supervisors the township’s “very strong rating” credit rating of of AA2 from Moody’s Investors Service helped save money on bond insurance.

“It’s indicative of the township’s financial position,” Gibbons said. “There was a lot of competition for these bonds.”

The township had expected the bids to cost $22 million, but the insurance savings helped cut costs.

Gibbons told officials and the public he expected the annual debt service cost to be $2.5 million over a 10-year term.

As the township will not need all the borrowed money right away, Gibbons suggested the township invest some of the funds, which could pull in as much as $630,000 that could be used for the project.

The township will contribute $15 million from their general fund for the project.

The overhaul of the existing complex along Lincoln Highway comes after years of talk. The project will revamp the finance, parks and recreation, the police department, clerks, the tax collector, and public works spaces. There will also be a change from a public meeting room to a community room, which could be used by residents and neighborhood organizations. The municipal building will be upgraded to include extra support and amenity spaces, shared, flexible meeting rooms, incubator space for start-up firms, and more.

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