Customer service remodels set to begin at Redmond City Hall this month

By Aaron Kunkler • September 8, 2017 1:30 am
An artist’s rendering of the service center which should be operational at Redmond city hall by this December. City of Redmond
An artist’s rendering of the service center which should be operational at Redmond city hall by this December. City of Redmond

A $1.291 million contract was awarded to a Redmond-based company at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The contract was approved 6-1 and will go to Regency NW Construction Inc. as it works on projects to make city hall more welcoming.

There was some discussion at the meeting about whether there had been adequate public notice, and council member Hank Myers voted against the bid.

Other members of the council said discussions have been ongoing since for at least six months, and the project is a response to input gained from residents.

Residents who have used services at city hall have said it is difficult to locate specific departments, and that the overall atmosphere of city hall can be unwelcoming, city documents said.

The documents provided during the meeting also said there is a lack of a large conference room that is easily accessible to the public.

The project has a total budget of roughly $3.23 million, with the amount initially budgeted in this biennium coming in higher at roughly $3.8 million.

There will be two major parts to the project.

First, there will be a new customer service desk created in the first floor lobby under the stairs at city hall and will include space for up to four customer service representatives.

It will also include self-help kiosks.

The second part of the project includes a new conference center that will hold conference rooms, including a large room with a movable wall to provide flexibility to room capacity and layout.

The current construction division and building inspection space will be remodeled to accommodate the conference rooms.

Construction is set to begin this month and the customer service center is slated to open this December.

The conference center is set to open next April.

The bid was announced in early August and the city received seven bids from companies around Washington state.

The highest was from Macro-Z Technology Company in Tacoma at $1.874 million.

Faber Construction Corp. in Lynden was the second lowest to Regency and bid nearly $1.462 million.

All bids came in under the engineer’s estimate of more than $2 million.