After months of uncertainty, plans to build the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy’s long awaited permanent building are finally moving forward.
The University of Hawaii on Monday awarded the project to Isemoto Contracting Co. for $31.3 million. The 20-month construction project is tentatively slated to start in June, UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said, putting the building on track for a 2018 opening.
UH was up against a time crunch. Legislative funds appropriated for the project in 2014 had to be committed by the end of this fiscal year, or they would have lapsed.
“At this point, I think it’s safe to say the funding is secured,” Meisenzahl said. “… It’s a significant step as far as, ‘OK, (we’re) no longer at risk of (the funding) lapsing.”
For the college’s more than 300 pharmacy students, the news is long overdue. The Hilo-based programs have operated out of five temporary sites since opening in 2007, while plans for a permanent structure were ironed out. A series of speed-bumps along the way, however, delayed those plans longer than some hoped.
For example, UH struggled for years to secure funding — the project’s budget was scaled back multiple times since first pitched.
Last week, Meisenzahl told the Tribune-Herald it was back to the drawing board yet again, after five bids received early this year all came in over the project’s $30 million budget.
This week, officials decided to scale back plans again, slightly, by converting research lab space into instructional lab space, which is less expensive to build, Meisenzahl said. The changes lowered Isemoto’s original bid, which was $32.6 million.
UH-Hilo also kicked in an additional $1.3 million in funding, Meisenzahl said. Plans still call for a 45,000-square-foot building.
Non-awarded bidders technically have five days to file a bid protest. On Monday, the contract will be officially awarded, Meisenzahl said.
State Sen. Kai Kahele — a Hilo Democrat who succeeded his father, Sen. Gil Kahele, who was a staunch supporter of the pharmacy program — lauded the news Tuesday and said the project, awarded to a local contractor, will bring “local jobs and local benefits.”
“It’s been a collaborative and a collective effort to get to this point,” Kai Kahele said. “On the surface, I don’t blame pharmacy students and faculty (who are frustrated). There are students who’ve come to the pharmacy programs as a freshman four years ago, and were promised a building … but (Monday) was a big deal, when (the bid) was awarded. Now, we can build it. We have the money, let’s get to work.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
