THUNDER BAY — City staff are ready to recommend one of the three finalists for the contract to build the indoor turf facility.
Administration will present its recommendation to city council on May 26.
Kelvin Jankowski, manager of capital facility construction, told Newswatch in an interview that he could not comment on who they are recommending, but he said all three bidders submitted tender proposals under the $42.7 million budget cap.
“We achieved all the goals we set out to achieve with the beginning of this process. So now it's just got this one final step,” said Jankowski.
Back in January, three companies were shortlisted.
Two of the companies are based in the city: Tom Jones Corporation and Finnway General Contractor. The third company, McDonald Brothers Construction Inc., is headquartered in Ottawa.
From there, Jankowski said, city staff evaluated each company based on technical quality and cost.
After the winning design is chosen, staff will finalize the design details and explore cost-saving opportunities before the start of construction, which is subject to city council's approval.
Once the contract is awarded, construction is set to begin this summer and finish by the fall of 2026.
According to the city, the sports complex is projected to support over 6,000 turf sports users.
Soccer Northwest Ontario president Michael Veneziale said he is excited to hear that an indoor turf facility update will be going to council.
"This has been a long time coming, and I'm really excited to see what comes forward," said Veneziale.
Back in February, Soccer Northwest and various user groups told council that they would be launching a community-led fundraising campaign to help offset the cost of the proposed indoor turf facility after council approves the tender.
"We've still been continuing the work. We had a meeting last night, for example, that was about 3 hours long. We have everything ready to go for when the facility is approved. We're gonna launch sometime just after that. We're excited to see what comes forward and get the community behind us," said Veneziale.
