At its regular meeting March 9, Kenmore City Council awarded a revamped $7.8 million contract for construction of a new city hall.

Graham Construction of Seattle submitted the winning bid, according to Mayor David Baker.

Baker added the city already has scheduled a groundbreaking for the new building for 10:30 a.m. March 28.

All in all, council approved a total of $14.4 million for the project, according to Councilman John Hendrickson. Any dollars above the price of the construction contract are intended to go toward so-called soft costs of the building, items such as office equipment and so on, Hendrickson said.

The only councilmember to vote against awarding the city-hall contract, Hendrickson stated that with land costs thrown in, the actual price of the building sits at $17.6 million so far. He said that last figure is simply too high.

“It’s a very large amount of money for our tax base,” Hendrickson said.

According to Hendrickson, Kenmore’s tax collections sit in the bottom 20 percent of all King County communities. He contended that when Kenmore became a city, financial studies suggested the city remain lean in terms of staff and administration, with roads, parks and sewers being the focus of any major capital improvements.

Until last month, the construction price tag for the new city hall was sitting at $12.9 million. Hoping to take advantage of a tight construction market, officials decided to bid the project out to see if they could get a better deal.

“I think we’re thrilled,” City Councilwoman Laurie Sperry has said of the bids received by the city.

Graham was the lowest bidder, but even the highest bid of $9.2 million was lower than the initial $12.9 million figure.

If original plans are followed, Kenmore’s new city hall will sit near the corner of 68th Avenue Northeast and a re-aligned Northeast 181st, basically across the street from the proposed Kenmore Village mixed-use development.

Initially, the city used a non-bidding process to award the contract for the new city hall. Assistant City Manager Nancy Ousley said even a year ago, construction projects were attracting very few bidders. Armed with permission from the state, Kenmore asked contractors to submit proposals to act as general managers and general contractors on the project. The city got about nine responses, interviewed officials from three firms and finally hired BN Builders Inc., of Seattle.

Ousley stated that at the time local leaders decided to go with the general contractor method of construction, the city had what she described as a very ambitious timetable for completion of the new city hall. Due mostly to the sluggish economy, that timetable has changed and with that in mind Ousley said the city administration went to council and suggested bidding the project.

After the March 9 meeting, Baker said council decided to move forward with some environmental additions to the new building, most notably solar panels and a “green” roof.

According to Baker, the solar panels could cover up to 400 square feet and provide the building with as much as 2.5 percent of its overall electrical power.

He added the so-called green roof will retain storm water rather than allowing it to run off and releasing it into the environment.