By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — City and school officials were all smiles today when construction bids came $1 million lower than expected for the proposed school central office.
Marand Builders of Charlotte had the low bid of $6.9 million for the building and $346,000 for the extras, for a total of $7.25 million. That’s less than the $8.37 million the city thought it might cost to construct the 62,000-square-foot office building at 329 S. Main St.
City officials hope to lease to the Rowan-Salisbury School System to house about 160 administrative employees.
J.M. Thompson was the second-lowest bidder with a base bid of $6.91 million and a total bid of $7.37 million.
Salisbury City Council plans to award the construction bid on Sept. 3 if the project wins approval from the state’s Local Government Commission.
This was the third bid opening for the controversial central office project. Today’s $6.9 million bid was lower than the 2012 bid of $7.4 million for the same size building.
The school system also received a bid of $6.3 million in 2012 for a 48,000-square-foot, slimmed-down version of the building. Both of the previous bids expired.
Read more in Friday’s Post.