SALISBURY — Rowan County will be soliciting bids from contractors for renovating the West End Plaza into a meeting hall and agricultural center.

On Thursday afternoon, the county along with ADW Architects, the Charlotte-based firm designing the project, held a pre-bid meeting at the West End Plaza for contractors to inspect the property and ask questions. The base bids for the meeting hall and agricultural center renovations are due on Jan. 5, 2023, at 2 p.m. There are 17 other alternate, smaller projects that deal with exterior alterations to the building and parking lots that are due on Jan. 5, 2023, at 3 p.m.

“The objective is to give the county flexibility on bid day. So we broke out chunks of the work that we thought were easily condensed into one package and made those alternates. The alternates don’t really change the function of the project, they just add layers of upgrade essentially,” said Jonathan Koricke, a representative of ADW Architects.

One contractor will be responsible for the base projects and whatever other alternates the county approves of. The contractor with the smallest bid will be hired to do the project.

Originally, bidding was supposed to begin this past April with construction commencing in June, but ADW Architects had to make sure the scope of the work was fully planned out and the county had to secure funding, which caused delays until now.

Koricke estimates the project will cost around $20 million-$30 million, depending on what alternates the county selects to move forward with. If everything proceeds on schedule and the county approves everything, construction will begin in March or April.