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Michael LeBlanc said the drawings are about 65 percent complete and should be ready by July for the roughly 111,000-square-foot building.
Not only will it house a 300-bed facility for state inmates, it will incorporate the sheriff’s department and a 246-bed city-county jail, a 60-bed work center, the Corinth Police Department, E-911 offices, justice court and offices, and emergency management.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure the flow is there for each entity,” LeBlanc said.
Alcorn supervisors believed when they took office in January 2008 that the construction start was only a few months off.
But the death of lead architect Patrick LeBlanc, Michael LeBlanc’s brother, in a private airplane crash resulted in an extended timeline. Partner agencies in the project also had a number of space design changes and other issues to resolve.
Based on two other projects LeBlanc’s company has put out for bid this year, the Alcorn County project cost might come in at $150 per square foot or lower, he said.
A 17,000-foot jail addition in Marion County received only two bids the first of the year, with the lowest about $3 million. Those bids were rejected and the project was bid again in March, attracting 10 bidders with the lowest at $2.2 million.
A 55,000-square-foot, 300-inmate facility in Chickasaw County attracted five bidders initially, the lowest more than $8 million. The second bidding attracted nine contractors and the lowest bid was $7.4 million.
On both projects, the average cost was about $175 per square foot when it was bid the first time, but the average cost per square foot dropped to about $138 with the second bidding.
If Alcorn County’s bids are at or below $150 per square foot, the total construction cost would be between $14.5 million and $16 million, he said.
“Everybody is looking for work,” LeBlanc said. “I think we can expect about five to eight bidders qualified to bid this job.”
Contact Lena Mitchell at (662) 287-9822 or lena.mitchell@djournal.com.
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