Contract awarded for pharmacy college building

HILO — 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.

The UH was up against a time crunch. Legislative funds appropriated for the project in 2014 had to be committed by the end of the 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, have delayed those plans longer than some hoped.

For example, the UH struggled for years to secure funding — the project’s budget has been 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.

The 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.