Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium rehabilitation on track despite contractor’s bankruptcy, official
By Jayed Rahman
Published: August 15, 2016
The rehabilitation of Hinchliffe Stadium remains on track despite a bankruptcy filing by the New York-based company that was awarded two contracts to handle architectural and engineering work at the endangered historic site, said historic preservation director Gianfranco Archimede on Monday morning.
Contracts that were awarded to New York-based WASA Studio (Wank Adams Slavin Associates) have been assigned to two other firms. The $1 million contract has been assigned to Trenton-based Clarke Caton Hintz for phase-one bidding administration, construction administration, phase-two schematic design, and preparation of construction documents. The $338,000 contract has been assigned to New York-based Architectural Preservation Studio (APS).
APS is an offshoot of WASA Studio. It is run by employees of the firm undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, according to court filings. Archimede said those contracts were assigned in January of this year. The company filed for bankruptcy protection back in July of 2015, according to court records.
Archimede provided a report to the school board on Wednesday evening about the stadium’s progress. During that presentation, he had said, the city was in a waiting period for the contracts to be assigned; however, he clarified that remark on Monday morning.
“We were in a waiting period and that waiting period was over in January 2016,” he said. The director provided a timeline of the all that has happened with the stadium over the past years. He said he was speaking in past tense at that meeting.
Archimede said the two new firms will continue from where WASA Studio left off. The work for the larger contract did not begin until recently, he said, as the city was attempting to get a business plan completed for the stadium.
WASA Studio filed for bankruptcy protection just a month after the larger contract was awarded by the city council.
The city is in a contractor pre-qualification phase for the first-phase of construction. He said that is expected to be completed at the end of this week. A review will be conducted to determine which contractors qualify to be on a list to potentially receive the phase-one construction contract which deals with preservation activities, he said.
“We’re trying very hard to stay on track,” he said. Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres has vowed to have a rehabilitated Hinchliffe Stadium before his term ends in 2018.
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