12/11/2001
The Public Building Commission Tuesday awarded a Chicago company with a $5.8 million contract to build the new Hawthorne Park family entertainment center on the South Side.
Winning the contract as the lowest responsive bidder was Novak Construction Co., 3423 N. Drake Ave., with a base bid of $5,790,000, according to PBC executive director Eileen Carey.
The PBC is building the 40,000-square-foot entertainment center, the first of its kind in the city, for the Chicago Park District on the southwest corner of 76th Street and Racine Avenue as part of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Neighborhoods Alive 21 program.
Construction is expected to begin this spring and be completed by early 2003.
The entertainment center will feature a public bowling alley, roller rink and video arcade, along with a snack bar, a party area for children’s birthday parties and a parking lot for 137 cars.
The building also will be fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Along with its successful bid, Novak Construction committed to using minority workers for at least half of the apprentice and laborer work on the site and for a minimum of 40% of the journeyman work, Carey noted. The firm also will have to meet the city’s requirement that at least 25% of the contract value be spent with minority-owned companies and 5% with woman-owned companies.
