Tag: First Floor Energy Positive

Horry County Schools New Construction Update

A plan to spend an additional three to four million dollars on school construction was nixed by the Horry County Schools Facility Committee last week.

The committee said no to a recommendation by Facilities Director Mark Wolfe that the district hire a construction management firm to oversee construction of five new schools being built by First Floor Energy Positive.

Committee chairman Neil James reportedly told Wolfe the committee was not going to vote to approve the hiring of a construction management firm.

Instead, the committee directed Wolfe to continue with the current plan of interviewing potential candidates for a construction manager position that would be added to the school district payroll.

Construction managers or management firms are traditionally hired by public bodies to act as their representative on construction projects looking out for the best interests of the body they work for.

To me, it has always seemed as another level of bureaucracy added to the cost of a project. I believe a construction manager hired by and added to the district payroll is in the best interests of the citizens.

And it may not really be necessary in the case of the five schools that First Floor Energy Positive has been contracted to build.

A review of progress to date was presented at a board meeting held almost immediately after the committee meeting. The presentation was made by First Floor Energy Positive representative Robbie Ferris.

During the presentation, Ferris noted that approximately 10,000 sq. ft. of building space had been added to the Carolina Forest Middle School project at the request of the school facilities staff. Ferris told the board no change order would be forthcoming as the addition could be absorbed in the cost of the project.

An additional approximately 2,000 sq. ft. of space was also added to the Socastee Elementary School design at no extra cost, according to Ferris.

HCGOP Hears Details on Horry County Schools Building Projects

Four members of the Horry County Schools Board of Education were present at a special meeting of the Horry County Republican Party last week to provide information on the recent awarding of five contracts to First Floor Energy Positive for new, energy positive schools.

This is an issue that still resonates in local media because First Floor Energy Positive had the highest total cost for their proposals for the five schools.

What seems to be missing from the local conversation is that the process used to select First Floor Energy Positive focused on building energy positive schools. This means energy savings in future years must be factored into the equation.

Will there be significant energy savings? There have been from schools built by First Floor in North Carolina.

Several days after the meeting, I heard an interview with HCGOP member who, several times, referred to the contracts going to the “highest bid.”

First of all, these were not bids, they were proposals.

Later in the interview, it was correctly stated that the school board basically got three conceptual proposals that were presented by the three finalist contractors. He correctly stated that the three contractors were not bidding on a design submitted by the school district.

These are key points that have been missed often in the ongoing discussion about these contract awards.

These were not design-bid-build contracts where the school district develops a design that is then bid on with the contract generally going to the lowest bidder.

These were design-build proposals that were developed by the individual contractors within overall specifications and requirements of the school district.

Several members of the selection committee for HCS said First Floor Energy Positive was the only one of the three finalist contractors to meet all of the requirements in their designs.

Orchestrated Attack on Horry County School Board

Since early last month when the Horry County Schools Board of Education picked First Floor Energy Positive to build five new schools, there has been an orchestrated attack to denigrate that decision.

Much has been made of the fact that the First Floor proposals were over the initial budget while little has been said about all three finalists submitting proposals over budget.

Several news articles have said that the school board ignored the advice of a paid consultant, but never mentioned that consultant was hired by the board’s attorneys to answer technical questions only and not to make recommendations about the awarding of the contracts.

Those articles were quick to point out that M.B. Kahn was the only one of the three finalists whose proposal was ‘within striking range’ of the initial budget.

The news media basically got fed part of the story and ran with it.

These were not design-bid-build projects where the contract design generally goes to the lowest bidder. These were design-build proposals where the best, most complete proposal gets the contract as long as the cost is in the ballpark of the others.

Many other allegations of ‘misinformation’ are being circulated, even though those circulating them can be seen to have some ties, past and/or present, to one of the unsuccessful proposers.

However, First Floor Energy Positive was the only proposer who demonstrated the ability to deliver the schools on time.

In addition, several sources familiar with the selection committee process said there are things First Floor included in their proposals, that the others did not, which helped the selection committee understand what they were getting and, more importantly, were requirements of the Request for Proposal and SC law.

And, First Floor Energy Positive is the only proposer of the three finalists to have successfully built energy positive schools that are raved about by the North Carolina school districts in which they are located.

Horry County Schools Picks First Floor Energy Positive

The Horry County Schools Board of Education voted last night to award construction of five new schools to First Floor Energy Positive.

Included in the motion to award contracts for all five schools in this round of building projects to First Floor Energy Positive, was the raising of the budget for construction from approximately $167 million to approximately $225 million.

Proposals from all three finalist construction teams exceeded the initial budget by a considerable margin, according to sources familiar with the process.

The vote effectively ends a selection process that began in early 2014. The school district will now file a Notice of Intent to award contracts and there will be a 14 day protest period in which one of the other two finalist construction teams may challenge the award if they so desire.

A protest is expected and sources within the school district say there has already been Freedom of Information Act requests for large numbers of documents associated with the selection process.

Be that as it may, the Horry County Schools Board of Education made the correct choice.

First Floor Energy Positive has constructed three state of the art schools in North Carolina, all of which generate more energy than they consume. Excess energy is sold back to the local power grid.

Horry County Schools Building Decision

The Horry County Schools Board of Education will vote on awarding building contracts for five new schools at a special meeting tonight.

This should have already occurred, but bureaucratic interference slowed the process down since the board voted October 12, 2015 to begin negotiations for all five projects with First Floor Energy Positive, the top rated construction team from an earlier selection process.

Thompson Turner Construction and M.B. Kahn are second and third rated teams, respectively and were again included in the process in the past two weeks when bureaucracy took over.

The Horry County Schools board expressed an interest in building energy positive schools when the Request for Proposals for these five projects was reissued earlier this year.

First Floor Energy Positive is the only one of the three finalist teams to have already constructed energy positive schools. In fact, it is the only team in the United States to have designed, constructed and operated energy positive schools.

Sandy Grove Middle School in North Carolina was the first energy positive school built by First Floor Energy Positive. It generated 42% more energy than it consumed in its first year of operation. The excess energy was sold to the local power grid.

The other two North Carolina schools in operation have produced similar savings.

Based on the experience of the three schools in North Carolina, it can be projected that Horry County Schools and taxpayers can save $100 million in utility costs over the 40-year lifespan of these five schools.

These are not hollow projections. First Floor Energy Positive is the only one of the three finalist teams who can guarantee, via performance bond, that their school buildings will generate more energy on-site than they will consume.

Energy Savings in Horry County Schools

The Horry County Schools Board of Education will hold a special meeting Monday night to vote on the awarding of contracts to build five new schools.

Board members voted October 12, 2015 to direct staff to enter into negotiations with First Floor Energy Positive, the top rated of three finalist teams considered for the projects, to finalize contracts for the five school buildings.

The vote approving the contracts was expected to come at the board’s regularly scheduled October 26, 2015 meeting.

However, according to sources familiar with the process, the negotiations hit a bureaucratic bump with staff and attorneys for Horry County Schools insisting the second and third place rated teams, Thompson Turner Construction and M.B. Kahn Construction respectively, had to be included in the final negotiation process.

The results of those negotiations, including recommendations for award of the contracts, are scheduled to be reported to the board at the specially called meeting.

Horry County Schools Construction Projects

An executive session for the Horry County Schools Board of Education dealing contract negotiations is scheduled for Monday night.

According to the agenda, the board will receive legal advice on contract negotiations for the five school building projects scheduled for completion in 2017.

Two weeks ago, the Horry County Schools Board of Education voted 11-1 to direct staff to begin final negotiations with First Floor Energy Positive for the five school building projects.

According to information provided at that time, the proposals submitted by First Floor Energy Positive were superior to those of competing firms, second place Thompson Turner Construction and third place M.B. Kahn Construction.

Additionally, First Floor Energy Positive’s experience in the construction of energy-positive school designs was an important factor in their choice.

First Floor Energy Positive’s team consists of local sub-contractors whose businesses and many employees are located in Horry County. Spending local public money in contracts with local firms is always a consideration for public agencies.

Horry County Schools Building Projects

The Horry County Schools Selection Committee will have another meeting tomorrow regarding the project to build five new schools.

According to sources familiar with the committee, it will be interviewing the three firms still in the selection process, M.B. Kahn Construction, First Floor Energy Positive and Thompson Turner Construction.

The building plan calls for five energy efficient schools to be built with a completion date of all five by August 2017.

According to sources familiar with the committee, the major goal is to select a construction team that will bring the projects to completion on time and within budget.

One of the three finalist teams, M.B. Kahn, had a construction manager contract with Dorchester School District 2 cancelled last year because of increasing costs.

According to Dorchester School District 2 board records, a contract with M.B. Kahn was finalized in June 2013 for Kahn to serve as construction manager of a district building program that included several elementary schools, a middle school and some other improvements.

By March 2014, the same Dorchester School District 2 board voted to terminate the contract with M.B. Kahn.

Horry County Schools Selection Committee

A Horry County Schools committee is scheduled to recommend next month which design-build team has been chosen to build each of five new schools.

After the recommendations are made by the Horry County Schools Selection Committee, the full Horry County School Board will vote either up or down on the recommendations.

The three teams remaining in the selection process are First Floor Energy Positive, Thompson Turner Construction and M.B. Kahn Construction Co.

Each team submitted two to five specific projects to be evaluated. Evaluation of each proposal will include school district emphasis on the ability to deliver high quality, energy positive schools.

According to sources familiar with the process, the Selection Committee is scheduled to complete its work by October 12, 2015. However, those sources say this deadline may be difficult to achieve.

Of the three remaining teams, M.B. Kahn is the most familiar to Horry County.

It served as the project manager for the new terminal building at Myrtle Beach International Airport.