Plans for Columbia Gardens, an urban wine and artisan village to be built on the north side of Columbia Drive near the Cable Bridge in Kennewick will need to be amended. Bids for the project came in about $1 million higher than expected and were rejected by Port of Kennewick Commissioners in February.

Columbia Gardens is a joint project between the Port of Kennewick, which owns the land, and the City of Kennewick. The City of Kennewick is building a wine wastewater treatment facility, extending the public trail and adding streetlights and landscaping to the site.

The Port has committed to build three buildings on the 16-acre site adjacent to Duffy’s Pond to accommodate boutique production wineries and provide the infrastructure necessary.

“The commissioners are very conscious that every dime spent by the Port is taxpayer dollars,” said Larry Peterson, director of planning and development for the Port.

Peterson said when the bids were opened, Port officials discovered they could not afford what was originally planned for that site.

“It will still be built, but there will have to be some efficiencies while staying as close and true to the original plan as possible,” Peterson said.

Earlier this year the Port sought bids for the infrastructure and construction of the three buildings. Five general contractors — two from the Tri-Cities, and one each from Pendleton, Spokane and Boise, Id. Responded. All were $1 million or more over the port’s $3 million budget.

The lowest bid came in at $4.2 million and the highest was more than $5.3 million.

After the bids were rejected, Peterson spent hours talking to contractors about lowering costs, while still retaining the footprint and appearance of the buildings as designed by Terence L. Thornhill Architects of Pasco.

“There was talk of changing the walls, trusses and roofing materials. Using materials traditionally available and construction methods more familiar to the contractors,” Peterson said.

Peterson said the Port had sought to use a new type of wall system, but it’s an unfamiliar construction method and the contractors were all worried about the time involved. Labor costs run about 50 percent of any project and with these unknown materials and building methods they were worried labor costs could explode, he added.

“It’ll be a challenge to cut 25 percent out of the project, but I think we can find some efficiencies by working with the local construction community to bring the design and modifications in line with the budget,” he said.

The footprint of the three buildings will remain the same — 10,000-sq.-ft. of heated/cooled indoor area with a couple of roofs extending over crushing pads and patios. The roof will be 20 feet tall, to allow barrels to be stacked and save floor space.

Peterson said the Port plans to move ahead and put in the underground infrastructure — water, sewer and electrical lines and stub them off within five feet of the building site.

“We’ll bid them separately and by dealing with the subcontractors directly, the Port can save some money and we won’t lose prime building time,” Peterson said. “The idea is to have the utility plans on the streets by mid-March and potentially award the bid by April 12.”

Peterson estimates the cost of the utility work will run anywhere from $450,000 to $500,000.

Proceeding with the utility work will allow the City of Kennewick to move forward with its part of the project.

“The city has grant dollars tied to other people and with grants involved they need to use the awarded dollars, not let them sit,” Peterson said.

The bid for the Columbia Gardens buildings will likely go out in August or September giving contractors time to begin work on the structures in early October.

“With the utilities already in whoever’s awarded the contract can begin putting up the shell from day one and be able to have it enclosed before winter,” Peterson said.