La Crosse Center’s committees still trying to pick contractor for $45-million project

Eight companies are in the running

Eight companies have applied to take on the $45-million renovation project of the La Crosse Center.

Choosing an architect, however, has turned out to be a harder job than the building’s board of directors anticipated.

They thought a couple of meetings might lead to a narrow field of two or three companies, but the board hasn’t reached that point yet.

As a result, the La Crosse city council might not approve a company until early next year, though center manager Art Fahey doesn’t expect that delay to be a problem:

“We originally set the timetable so that we could follow the council cycle and be done by the end of the year,” Fahey said. “This may push it back one more month. For a project of this magnitude, one more month is not going to be a big deal.”

The Center is 36 years old and the board has had two planning sessions to trim the field of candidates.

“We have a point system here that we’re looking at,” Fahey said. “We want to make sure that we collectively understood how to assess the points. 

We’re going to do it individually and add up all the points. Then do it collectively as a group and do a summation number. Those are kind of questions that are still hanging out there.”

Fahey went on to describe the point system for the screening committee.

“Projects they’ve done that are like this one, they’ve done,” Fahey explained. “The firm’s qualifications. Who they’re going to be working with. The location of their office.

“Those are all important in this whole process. Those are things that are reflected in those point scales.”