Preliminary report sees price tag of $788 a square foot

By Joseph Kelly

Norfolk could spend as much as $9.35 million on a new firehouse according to a preliminary budget projection, but First Selectman Matt Riiska is pushing back on the numbers, expressing confidence that the actual cost will be hundreds of thousands dollars less.

Plans for the new firehouse call for a  single-story, building to be constructed in an area adjacent to the existing firehouse on Shepard Road. The new building and a nearby storage facility will have more than double the square footage of the current firehouse, which will be torn down once the new structure is operational. 

Downes Construction Company, a New Britain-based firm that was retained by the town to develop a detailed budget projection, submitted an eight-page report that looked at every facet of the project, from the structural steel needed to hold it up ($70,635) to the shrubs and ground cover that will be planted once construction is complete ($108,000).

Altogether the estimate of $9.35 million comes to about $788 a square foot, which is in the upper range of what other communities have been paying.

Mitchell Associates Architects, a firm outside of Albany, N.Y. that works exclusively on public safety buildings, analyzed the costs of nearly 50 firehouse projects in the northeast and produced an average, inflation-adjusted cost for 2024 of $705 per square ft.

The direct construction costs required for Norfolk’s firehouse—such as the labor and materials involved in pouring a foundation, putting up the building, insulating it, etc. —account for about three-fourths of the total: $6.9 million. More than a third of that goes to mechanical systems—electrical, HVAC, plumbing and fire suppression—that collectively weigh in at $2.5 million.

Indirect costs, such as preparing blueprints, managing the construction, debris removal, administrative costs, etc., account for $2.4 million (26%) of the total estimate.

By and large, it’s the indirect costs that Riiska is challenging. “A lot of the costs I simply don’t understand. There’s a line in there for $691,000 in design and estimating costs. We don’t have that much design left to do,” he said. The indirect costs also include more than $500,000 set aside for inflation and contingencies.

Other cost cutting efforts focus on architectural details. Riiska said approximately $65,000 in stone veneer had already been taken out of the budget, but was not reflected in the preliminary estimate. Efforts are also underway to trim the $122,000 allocated for nearly 1,300 square feet of windows.

Overall, the projections included in the Downes report highlight the many individual elements that go into a major construction project—and how expensive they are:

Insulating the firehouse: $327,396

Installing an epoxy-coated floor: $131,167

Demolishing the old firehouse: $109,446—substantially more than the $75,000 it cost to build fifty-plus years ago

Riiska is hoping to bring the $9.35 million down by $500,000 to $1 million. According to Downes, reductions beyond that might require substantial changes to the design of the building.

Whatever the final cost, the town is in the process of tapping various funding sources to raise $6 million. This includes a $2.5 million grant already approved by the state of Connecticut and a $1.5 million grant pending in Washington. A capital campaign focused on major donors has been quietly underway. Tony Kiser, who is leading that effort, expressed confidence that it will raise $2 million. 

Assuming the $6 million from those sources all comes through, the town would then seek a municipal bond to cover the rest, with the interest and principal being paid with local tax dollars. 

A vote at a town meeting will take place before anything happens. As the time for a vote nears, Norfolk Now plans to hold a forum on the firehouse at which members of the fire department, the architect who designed the new firehouse and Riiska will provide information and answer questions.