When Brookhaven’s public safety building opens this summer, it will be millions of dollars over budget and two years late.
The facility was approved by Brookhaven City Council in 2018. Since then, the budget and completion date has been a moving target.
The building is now projected to cost $25.8 million, which is $7.8 million more than the original estimate.
Located on a “difficult” lot at the Peachtree Creek Greenway trailhead, the building will house the Brookhaven Police Department and municipal court.
Disagreements between the city and the construction company ended in recent arbitration. Performance issues came to an impasse when both entities turned to lawyers. Brookhaven claims the work was not done to code, while BM&K says they weren’t paid enough to properly do the job.
As of now, the roof leaks and a retaining wall is not up to code.
After Brookhaven terminated BM&K for cause, the two parties entered arbitration and reached a settlement agreement in April over the completion of the public safety building.
The agreement requires BM&K to complete the project for $803,000 plus an additional $1.44 million that Brookhaven had withheld pursuant to the contract. The city is holding back $177,000 in contingency funds.
BM&K, a Braselton-based company, has managed the construction of Dunwoody City Hall, Jackson County Fire Training Center and the Heard County Administration Building among others.
BM&K President Don Clerici said he’s looking forward to putting the finishing touches on the building.
“We at BM&K are incredibly pleased to have reached an agreement with the city of Brookhaven for the completion of the Public Safety Building,” Clerici said. “The city and BM&K discussed the complexity of the project in coming to the decision that BM&K is the best contractor to finish the project. It was meaningful to us that the city acknowledged that BM&K was not terminated and agreed that changes during construction made this a complex project.”
Clerici said the building is on schedule to be finished by the end of July. What’s left is county and state inspections, painting and other “low voltage items” like installing the emergency response system.
“It’s a difficult site,” said Clerici. “We’ve had a lot of challenges.”
The future Brookhaven City Hall – still in the design phase – has recently been under scrutiny for its $78 million budget.
