Columbus chooses builder for new fieldhouse at old Fair Oaks Mall

The city of Columbus has a builder for a new fieldhouse at the site of the former Fair Oaks Mall.

The city’s Board of Public Works and Safety yesterday morning agreed to accept a proposal from Force Construction to build the sports facility on the north side of the former mall, now known as Nexus Park.

The city envisions a roughly 150,000 square foot facility that would include space for about one and a half soccer fields and that could be reconfigured to support 16 basketball courts or three ball diamonds.

City officials have estimated a construction cost of about $25 million, but base bids from both Force Construction and Runnebohm Construction from Shelbyville came in higher than that. The final design and price will be negotiated through various alternates with the city and the contractor.

Dave Hayward, the city engineer, said that the two proposals were reviewed by the city’s technical review committee. Force Construction’s proposal had the lowest adjusted price and was deemed to be the best value for the taxpayers of Columbus.

Mary Ferdon, director of administration and community development for the city, said the process to choose a proposal for the fieldhouse was different than anything else the city has done before. Some of the design work on the project has already been done by the NexusPark design firm of Perkins & Will.