Stearns County Justice Center Project Bids Come in Under Budget

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Stearns County commissioners heard good news on Tuesday as staff updated them on the bids for a new Justice Center.

The original estimate for the project was just under $325-million, but Facilities Manager Kevin Korneck says after they've crunched the bid numbers, the project cost is comfortably below the $290-million mark.

Kornick says they received a whopping 225 individual bids submitted for the project. Of those, about 1/4 of them were local companies, meaning a big boost for our economy...

As we work to vet our low bids and work our way through the contracts, I predict that about 60% of the hard cost dollar value will go to firms that are local to Stearns County. So, that's a very big number.

Korneck says they'll go and meet with the top two bids in each category to make sure everything is as it seems, and then look to award contracts on April 7th.

The county is building a new 428,000 square-foot complex that includes a new 270-bed jail, 11 courtrooms, a new sheriff's office, and a county attorney's office.

The project will be paid for through a 3/8-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2024.