No bidders for new Toyota Field clubhouse demolition

MADISON – The city of Madison put the outfield site demolition package for the new clubhouse at Toyota Field out to bid on Thursday, January 23 but received no bidders on the project.

“We did not have any bidders on that based on the criteria we had given them,” reported Mayor Finley at the Monday, Jan. 27 Madison City Council meeting.

The outfield site demolition project would begin the work on the new clubhouse the city is building in Toyota Field to meet new guidelines for minor league baseball stadiums. The council has debated the form the new clubhouse should take. Per the January 13 work session, the council appeared to being moving in the direction of a four-story building with group suites but are still exploring all of the options.

The lack of bidders for this early stage left council members looking for answers.

“We don’t know fully why they no-bid. We don’t know all the details just yet,” commented city council president John Seifert.

“Have we reached to any of the people that got bid packages to sit down and talk to them about why they didn’t bid?” queried Greg Shaw.

City Attorney Megan Zingarelli suggested that contractors were concerned about time and having to work the construction schedule around baseball season and other events at the stadium.

“We also learned that some of the contractors were having trouble getting subcontractors to handle certain aspects of the project. So, that was an- other factor in what happened,” she stated.

Zingarelli promised to probe further into the reasons that kept contractors from bidding on

the outfield site demolition project, and Finley assured that the city is following precedent on no-bid situations to re-bid the package.