A hiccup with the developer will likely set the marina project at the Port of Rochester back a season, says Mark Gregor, manager of the Environmental Quality Division for the City of Rochester. About half of the marina basin has been excavated, he says.
The city and The Pike Company mutually agreed to close out Pike’s contract to construct the marina. Gregor says that there was disagreement about how to approach the project.
The result is that the marina probably won’t open until the 2016 boating season, he says. Originally, the hope was to have it open for at least part of the 2015 season, Gregor says.
“But a lot of that depended on construction progress and weather,” he says.
The overall goal of opening the marina ahead of the hotel and residential units that make up the private development at the port is still intact. Phase 1, which includes the 52-room hotel and 18 condominiums, is supposed to be completed in the spring or summer of 2018.
The city is still working out how much it’s going to pay Pike for the marina work it has done; the original contract was for $12.6 million. The city is currently seeking a second developer to finish up the marina, Gregor says, and that contract could be about $7 million to $8 million.
“When we combine the remaining basin work with the dock system installation, that’ll still be a fairly sizable contract,” he says.
The bids to finish-up the 85-slip marina are due by January 20, Gregor says.
There will be a third contract, he says, to turn a portion of the terminal building into a boater services facility for people who rent slips at the marina. That will include showers, restrooms, lounge area, and other amenities, Gregor says.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2014 – Jan 6, 2015.
Could you please explain the “disagreement” over how to approach the project? I would think that when the city contracts with a firm do to work for the city, the firm does the work that the city asks. If there is an ethical reason to object – for example, the city’s approach would be structurally unsound and a danger to citizens – then the firm has an obligation to speak up. Otherwise, the city is paying you, so shut up and do the work. Now, the city has to pay multiple firms for this job, and there is no way that two firms will cost less than one for the entire project. This wasteful spending deserve an explanation, Christine.
I did ask repeatedly, Frank. The only explanation I was given was that the disagreement had to do with the continued excavation and the de-watering of the basin.
It’s because Pike couldn’t hit bedrock and they deemed the project unsafe. So they walked off the job. Is there even another contractor that will touch this disaster of a project? I haven’t heard of one. This whole thing is a huge mess and it will just get worse.
The problems and additional cost of tax payer dollars that are apparent with this ill-thought out marina project are nothing compared to the problems and additional cost to tax payers that will occur unless someone or something can stop the City from proceeding with their current plan for development at the Port. There is no way the unstable, water-logged (and did I mention contaminated???) soil will be able to support 10 story buildings over an extended period of time.
The city needs to provide more details. Why wouldn’t they be more transparent?
The only contractor interested in completing this is Edgewater as they have a special interest in having boats to bring in people to their disaster ridden hotel. Unless someone is completely transparent about the how and why Pike was let out of a contract with no consequential damages, I don’t believe we will find another interested general contractor.
Geeze, how difficult can it be to dig a hole in the ground? Is this is any indication of how the rest of the project will go?
What are the chances of finding a replacement contractor that wouldn’t think exactly like Pike? The whole thing is in a state of limbo that could last years.
Frank I bet the reason Pike did not speak out is because the city threatened to sue if they speak out. This would not be the first time that the city gagged the contractor on this project. There is a serious problem at the site. More information on the issue will come out after the bid conference on Tuesday.
A year or two after the fast ferry disaster, the town of Irondequoit was toying with the idea of building a 200 slip marina on the bay. There was no business plan – no proof or even a hint that there was demand for another marina. I visited the town hall and asked to see any research which supported the need for the project. They foolishly referred me to the Army Corps of Engineers, an agency which doesn’t get involved with evaluating business viability.
At one point, a reliable source explained to me that a construction company was owed a favor by a town board member, and in fact, there WAS no sound reason for a new marina. The idea quietly faded away.
Is there actually enough demand to support the marina described in this article? Does anyone know, or even care?
Went to the bidders conference, Tuesday afternoon. One of the bidders asked the obvious question, “How come Pike and the City split?” Basically the City staff had this blank stare, but no information. When it came to comments about how to finish the job of opening the marina to the river, The city staff was again not helpful in their comments, “We would rather leave it to you the contractors to figure/decide how to best do the job.” This leaves the contractors on the hook, if something goes wrong, even if Pike realized the issues and shared them with the city when they parted. I personally asked two questions. First why did the City focus on listing a series of five 1982 test boring points as the best of their research see “Subsurface Investigation Summary Package”, they offered no answer. This report would appear to take the focus away from the reality that bedrock in many areas is 100 feet or more and is supported by newer boring tests by Hadley and Aldrich. See the Predevelopment Subsurface Conditions Analysis investigation Report pages 301 to 391. I believe there is a serious risk in opening the marina to the river causing the river to erode the marina area via the flow of the river. Second question was “Why did someone doctor Figure 3 of the Environmental Management Plan showing the overview of the boring and test pit sites to make it look like many more tests were done”. The answer was the it was not doctored. I had in my possession at the meeting, copies of the figures blown up proving my claim. This again would lead someone to believe plenty of test borings had been done. One can compare that diagram to the one on page 256 of the Predevelopment Subsurface Conditions Analysis investigation report and see a drastic difference in the number of test points. Likewise if you have a good enough copy of Figure 3 that you can blow the image up, you see the same label for test sites used multiple times to clutter the document. Again, the City engineer denied any changes have been made as to “doctor” the document. I have requested a better copy of the document from Labella to allow them prove their point.
I will be the first to agree that most of the information provided seems very complete and helpful, but why did the City/Labella not provide good information which they had in regards to the boring tests on these documents makes no sense.
To not provide all the known information about why Pike walked away is at best not allowing good contractors to know what the problems are. If I were any of them, I would walk away due to the unknowns and the risk.
After failing miserably with his Less-Than-Fast-Ferry and losing tens of millions of tax dollars in the process, Bill Johnson was hired as a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy by RIT. Perhaps Ms. Warren believes that a similar failure on her part with the marina will yield a similar result.
I’ve noticed that Greg Weycamp is nowhere to be found. Oh yeah; He’s not from here. If he was, he’d be doing some of the project management for the city. Is Edgewater concerned that the bedrock may be too deep to anchor a high-rise?
If Greg Weycamp wants a marina, then shouldn’t he at least be here helping build one? It was a BIG mistake to hire an out-of-town developer for the port. Weycamp makes grand promises for Rochester’s port and then flies back to Chicago to balance the books.