Student Union renovation project underway with goal of 2001

Private-sector firms are already pairing to form design-build teams and mobilizing for the competition set for June, said Joel Valdez, vice president for business affairs.

The Arizona Board of Regents last month waived seven board regulations to allow the university to condense the design and construction on the Student Union by hiring one architect-contractor team to do the job.

During the request for qualifications, the university will sort through the joint ventures jostling for the job by reviewing their financial stability and past projects to see if they can complete the massive Student Union renovation project.

"It's almost like a résumé they push," Valdez said. "First you have to decide among all the teams who is qualified, then you narrow it down to three or four or five."

Those who make the first cut proceed to the request for proposals and submit drafts, including projected timelines and costs.

That often costs companies about $100,000, Valdez said.

"Those who are prepared to submit during the request for proposals are going to have to spend money," he said. "This is not a cheap thing."

Teams not chosen are reimbursed up to $20,000, Valdez said.

Under the tentative timeline, a team will be chosen by late fall, and plans can be laid before students by early 1999.

Renewed requests for student support must wait until that point, said Saundra Taylor, vice president for student affairs.

Meanwhile, the university is canvassing private donors for funds and calling in the Alumni Association to help in the effort, Taylor said.

Money may also be raised by offering generous donors the opportunity to have a room, hall or even the entire building named for them, Valdez said.

"We're trying to tap into every conceivable source," said UA President Peter Likins.

But Likins said he remains convinced that another student fee referendum must take place next year.

"We just need to get way below the $80 originally estimated as an upper limit," Likins said. "I'm persuaded there is a sum of money we can raise to reduce the burden on the students."

Likins said the university is authorized to use $25 million in academic bonds, but he is leery of relying on that source.

"That would impact tuition, and we're trying to do this without impacting tuition," he said. "We can use the bonds and impact tuition and not use the fee, but then students don't get a chance to vote."

Valdez said he is looking into creative use of privatization to raise as much money as possible - but privatization cannot pay all the costs.

But all the talk of funding and costs is preliminary until a team is chosen and its plans are revealed, he said.

"I know this seems to be the burning issue, but the main thing is getting something on paper so the students and faculty can see what we're planning to do," Valdez said.

All figures are vague estimates until then, he said - including the $60 million estimated price tag for the building.

The same haziness is true for estimated timelines, said Peter Dourlein, a senior architect for the university's Facilities Management Department.

"We don't have a real schedule on that," he said. "If we're building in a privatized method the contractors are going to have input on the timeline. We don't even know at this point if it's all new buildings or what - we still call it renovations but there's going to be a lot of new construction."

What is certain is that the project must be phased so the Student Union need not be shut down entirely - and that construction will take at least two years.

Dourlein said Facilities Management has a very preliminary estimate that construction - pending choice of the design-build team and approval of a funding strategy - will last from September 1999 to May 2001.