Assembly to decide on prison contract

PALMER — A firm has been selected to design and build the Goose Creek Correctional Center.

The Mat-Su Borough press reports that Neeser Construction Inc. submitted a proposal Borough staff intends to recommend to assembly for approval. The company was one of two to bid on the $220 million project.

The Goose Creek Correctional Center is projected to be a 1,536-bed facility at the corner of Alsop and Point MacKenzie roads. Borough officials say the Borough will pay for the prison by issuing revenue bonds. Those bonds will then be repaid by the state over 25 years, with the state eventually owning the facility.

In an e-mail last week, Borough Manager John Duffy said the Borough is pushing to hold to its schedule for building the prison. but volatility in the global financial market could push back the sale of bonds a week.

“The bond market has become better recently and we believe that another week or so will cause the interest rates to settle at more reasonable rates,” Duffy said. “Plus, there are one heck of a lot of municipal and state bonds in the queue to be sold, the backlog due to unfavorable market conditions.”

That schedule has construction on the prison beginning in spring 2009.

Neeser Construction has a 39-year history doing design-build work in the state, with projects ranging from the $48 million Anchorage Jail to the $101 million Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, the Borough reports.

Gerald Neeser, the company’s owner and president, was quoted in the Borough’s press statement saying that the project is the largest the company has taken on in terms of budget, but in square footage.

The Borough pegs the amount of jobs the project will generate at between 600 to 700 for the prison’s construction and 350 to staff the completed facility.

To win the bid award, Neeser beat out competitor Cornerstone/J.E. Dunn. A third team, Hunt/Lydig/Kiewitt Pacific Co., withdrew, according to the Borough press statement.

The assembly will have the final word on whether to award Neeser the project when the matter comes before the body in December.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.