New Armory bid opening coming in July

A longer-than-anticipated design process has delayed construction of the Minnesota National Guard Luverne Readiness Center.
Under the original design schedule, project manager Paul Kempton with the Minnesota National Guard predicted construction on the local armory would be underway by now.
Instead, he is waiting for next month’s bid opening, which was originally scheduled for April.
“It’s been a long design process going through the MNG (Minnesota National Guard),” he said last week.
Groundbreaking was supposed to be in May, but Kempton is nervously waiting for the six-week bid process to finish.
His concern: The rising costs of construction materials will cause bids to be high for the $16.5 million project.
“I am always concerned,” he said.
However, officials with the design and engineering firm TKDA in St. Paul are cautiously optimistic.
“We will see what the bids come in at,” Kempton said.
The armory will house Luverne and Pipestone guard units, and construction funding will be a unique blend of state, federal and private funding sources.
While the facility features recruiting offices, classrooms, and a hall for monthly guard assemblies, the public can use the two full-sized basketball courts when not in use by guard members.
The K.A.H.R. Foundation, a philanthropic organization of Jeannine Rivet and Warren Herreid II, is providing more than $6 million toward the 49,902-square-foot building project.
After the July bid opening, a five-week negotiation and mobilization period takes place before the actual construction begins.
Construction is expected to take 18 months, putting the opening of the new armory into 2022.