Fascinating insight into the bid process as Welkes-Barre receives 14 bids for hotel demolition.
Fourteen sealed bid envelopes were opened Friday – with bids ranging from a surprisingly low $486,000 to more than $1 million – while at least a half-dozen contractors looked on at the Wilkes-Barre City Hall and scribbled notes during the public reading of the bids for demolition and removal of the Hotel Sterling.
The city, along with county engineer Joe Gibbons, will analyze the bids and will announce the winning bidder in the next three weeks. They could choose a contractor other than the lowest bidder – A.R. Popple – because they must also take into account availability, equipment, work history and cash on hand.
Still, both Frati and an estimator at Popple Construction, cousins with A.R. Popple, said one of the five lowest bidders would almost certainly get the job.
“We bid pretty aggressively,” said Popple Construction’s Joe Umbriac, whose company bid $575,400, the fourth-lowest. “I mean, if they can do it for that much less, they can have it. We bid it to get it; we did the best we could.”
Audible gasps came from the crowd when Frati announced the second sealed bid – of a surprisingly low $492,729 from Earth Movers Unlimited, which turned out to be the second-lowest bid of the morning. “Repeat that, please,” one of the contractors yelled.
Part of the reason for the surprise might have come from the city’s preliminary estimate for the demolition of the old hotel at River and Market streets. City officials pegged the number at about $1 million, while Gibbons warned the price tag could hover around $1.5 million.
“I would be a liar if I said I was not pleasantly surprised that bids came in under $500,000,” Frati said after the public reading.
Tony Popple, president of A.R. Popple, said he was able to bid so low because he anticipated making between $200,000 and $300,000 from selling scrap from the building – such as the copper around the roof and the steel beams inside. Anderson, of SRI Demolition, believed Popple’s estimate was high but declined to share his figure.
“There’s always someone who goes off the deep end,” Anderson added. “I knew where our numbers were and what’s going to be required to be done in a safe and orderly manner, and I don’t know how those two guys will do it for that number.”
Of the 14 bids received, three were in excess of $1 million with Flynn Wrecking Pottsville coming in as high bidder at $1,123,000.
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