Bexar County has chosen an architect for its planned $13 million workforce training center at Brooks.
The Bexar County Commissioners Court approved a $1.2 million design contract Tuesday for Marmon Mok LLP, which includes programming, site surveying, plat services, design development and construction administration. Construction of the project alone is estimated to cost about $10.5 million.
The county plans to build the 30,000-square-foot facility on the corner of City Base Road and Aviation Landing with construction expected to begin by November of this year. The county is working with Brooks to procure the site, said Dan Curry, Bexar County’s director of facilities management, during the Commissioners Court meeting.
“I think Brooks is a great place for us to be,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, adding that the project will tie to other educational and industrial facilities on the campus.
The Texas Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education will operate in the center, planned to have multipurpose rooms, classrooms, computer labs, a high-bay robotics and training lab, support offices and conference spaces.
Curry said that although TXFAME may be one of the prime users of the center, the court has directed the project team to make sure the facility is flexible and capable of supporting manufacturing industry partners in all sectors with workforce gaps through a wide variety of skills training and development programs.
The total project budget will be $13.15 million, approved by the Commissioners Court in its fiscal year budget. Although early documents showed a potential second phase of development, Curry said no second phase is currently budgeted.
The county evaluated 14 interested design teams, with Gensler and Marmon Mok Architecture scoring the highest. The Commissioners Court granted the Facilities Management department approval on Oct. 20 to interview the two finalists.
Article originally published here: Bexar County secures architect for $13M project