Construction to begin July 5 on Larimer County office in Loveland – Loveland Reporter-Herald

By Pamela Johnson

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Construction will begin July 5 on the new Larimer County office building in Loveland, located at First Street and Denver Avenue. (Special to the Reporter-Herald)

FORT COLLINS Construction of the new Larimer County building in Loveland will begin July 5 with the first piece of the contract approved Tuesday and an official groundbreaking on Thursday.

The county commissioners approved a contract Tuesday with Haselden Constuction for $3.2 million, the cost of the footings, foundation, framework and shell of the 46,000-square-foot building at First Street and Denver Avenue.

The vote was 2-0 with Tom Donnelly and Lew Gaiter voting, and Steve Johnson absent from the administrative matters meeting.

That amount is just a piece of the overall $14.9 million construction contract with Haselden, and the balance will come before the commissioners in future months in additional contracts. The county split the construction contract into pieces to it could apply for two grants from the Department of Local Affairs, available in different time frames..

"We already have a $1 million grant, and we're going back in August (to try) for another $1 million grant," explained Ken Cooper, county facilities director.

The cost of the overall project is expected to be $19.5 million with nearly $15 million for construction of the two-story building on 8.9 acres of county land in Loveland. Construction is scheduled to begin next week, and this week, officials will celebrate the project with a groundbreaking on site at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The new building, which will have 229 parking spaces, will replace the current county office building at 6th Street and Cleveland Avenue, which officials have said is overcrowded and outdated.

The city of Loveland is considering buying the old county building and parking lot once county employees have moved into the new facility.

The new building will house the clerk and recorder, health and environment, human services, Workforce Center and a Loveland station of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. The new, larger office space is designed to meet the needs of the growing southern portion of the county.

Construction is expected to be complete in late summer or early fall of 2018, and the actual work is set to begin on July 5, the day after the Independence Day holiday.

"Don't eat too many hot dogs on the Fourth," Donnelly, a Loveland resident, joked to the contractor on Tuesday. "We want you to be out there on the Fifth."

Pamela Johnson: 970-699-5405, johnsonp@reporter-herald.com, http://www.twitter.com/RHPamelaJ.

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Construction to begin July 5 on Larimer County office in Loveland - Loveland Reporter-Herald