Spokane's Bouten Construction tapped for North Central modernization

May 7-The Spokane Public Schools Board selected a construction company to lead the modernization of North Central High School as promised under the district's $200 million bond, passed in November.

At Wednesday's school board meeting, the body approved a contract between the district and Spokane-based Bouten Construction Co. for the endeavor. Bouten was the cheaper of two finalists for the contract.

The district followed a state-mandated process to select a contractor. Six companies applied in March: Bouten, Lydig Construction Inc., Garco Construction, Graham Construction & Engineering Inc., Walker Construction and Swinerton .

After a scoring process, the highest three advanced to interviews and were scored again; the top two from that bunch: Bouten and Garco, submitted bids for contracts with estimated price tags for their work.

Bouten had the highest score in the process and the cheapest estimated cost for services at around $2.7 million. Garco's bid was around $3.7 million.

The total estimated budget for North Central's renovation is $40 million, which includes costs associated with preconstruction, design and architecture work, and wrap-up costs with the project.

Bouten's price won't be finalized until after the project, said Michael Pflieger, the district's purchasing lead.

It's not the first time the district has tapped the 82-year-old Spokane-based firm. Bouten was responsible for building a brand new Yasuhara Middle School that opened in 2022 in north Spokane.

Travis Schulhauser, Spokane Public Schools' chief operating officer, said Bouten stood out for its cost-estimating software that can quickly and more accurately determine costs of proposed designs.

"Anytime we do a modernization, it's very complex, especially for something like North Central, knowing that we need to stay within budget as we make decisions around moving an office or changing some classrooms, stuff like that," Schulhauser said. "We want to know what the real cost is going to be."

Contractors will "modernize" the building's oldest sections rather than a full replacement, focusing improvements in the older, southern half of the school. The board previously selected NAC Architecture using a similar bid process to work on the building's design; their bill to the district won't be ironed out until the process is over, Schulhauser said.

The district is still in the design phase of this project, Schulhauser said, and he doesn't know an exact timeline for the renovation. He said he expects to still be in the design phase until March 2027, as staff, contractors and architects work to identify "pain points" in the school and work out logistics. Class will still be in session while construction is underway.

Also part of the North Central renovation, the board last month approved a contract with Avidex Spokane to replace the school's audio and visual system in the theater. This is expected to cost more than $523,000 and should be installed by mid-August.

Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.

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