Central Market is shown in this file photo.
Lancaster city officials opened the second round of bids for the first major renovation of Central Market in nearly four decades on Wednesday.
In the coming weeks, they will study the qualifications of the four construction companies that entered bids and decide which — if any — of the 15 different potential additions they can afford.
Only then will they know how much the project will cost.
What was known on Wednesday is that renovation of the historic public market house will be more expensive and take longer than previously planned.
Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city's Public Works director, said it likely will be a month before the general contract is awarded. The work should begin soon afterward, she said.
Initially, the city had hoped to award a contract late last year. The work was to begin at the start of the new year and be completed by November. That schedule was intended to have the renovation done before the holiday shopping season.
With a March start to the work, it won't be done before the holidays, but the work will be stopped, Katzenmoyer said. The contract requires work to stop the week before Thanksgiving and resume after Christmas.
The project likely will be completed at the end of January or the beginning of February 2011, she said.
Valerie Moul, chairwoman of the Central Market Trust board, the nonprofit group that operates the market on behalf of the city, said her group has sought to ease the impact of the renovation on shoppers and standholders.
"We're doing everything we can to minimize disruption and keep the market open," Moul said.
"I can't go back and get January and February back," she said, "and we can't let the city delay it a whole year."
The renovation calls for electrical and plumbing work under the market floor and replacement of electric lights above the stands.
To do that work while the market remains open means that parts of it will be closed, with each of 13 areas closed for renovation for three weeks each. Each of those areas has five or six stands. The stands in the work area will be relocated to empty stands.
Some standholders have decided to close for the three weeks their area will be closed, Michael Ervin, the market manager, said.
"There are a significant number of stands that have said they can do something else during that time," Ervin said.
Two stands — Rafiki Deli, which sells African foods, and Q's Looms, an heirloom fruit and vegetable stand — have opted to close during the entire renovation period, Ervin said. Those closures allow more flexibility in moving other stands around.
"It's a relatively short disruption, and it's an equal-opportunity disruption, and nobody will be forced to close and nobody will be forced to close during the holiday, which is an important thing," Moul said.
Ervin said that despite assurances the major work will be done before the holidays, many standholders remain apprehensive that plans will change.
When bids were opened for the project in the fall, the low bidder was Perrotto Builders of Reading, with a bid of about $1.36 million.
Perrotto was the general contractor on the former Armstrong building at 150 N. Queen St., which now houses county offices. County officials in 2007 scolded the firm for safety lapses.
The city could not reject the bid without raising concerns about the company's qualifications. With the rebidding, each bidder had to submit extensive documentation of its qualifications to complete the project. Review of those qualifications will take about two weeks, Katzenmoyer said.
The lowest bidder on Wednesday was Bob Smith Contractors Inc., of West Grove, with a base bid of $1.87 million. Caldwell, Heckles & Egan, of Lancaster, had the next lowest base bid, at $1.94 million. Warfel Construction, of East Petersburg, bid $1.99 million. And Wohlsen Construction, of Lancaster, bid $2.2 million.
Each of those bids contains 15 alternates, which include masonry restoration, plumbing, elevator installation, slate roof replacement and even a brass dedication plaque. Each of those represents a cost that could be added to, and in a few cases deducted from, the total contract cost.
Other contracts, for such components as electrical, sprinkler, HVAC and mechanical already have been let, Katzenmoyer said. A $500,000 boiler already has been replaced.
That's why it is hard to put a final price on the renovation, she said.
"It's complicated."