West Hollywood’s City Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve two contracts with construction management company Heery International for oversight of the automated parking “robo-garage” and the next phase of the West Hollywood Park redesign.
The Georgia-based Heery will supervise the construction of the new automated parking garage behind City Hall at 8300 Santa Monica Blvd. at Sweetzer. Construction on the “robo-garage” is scheduled to start in January 2014 and be completed by June 2015. The city will pay Heery $1,200,000 for oversight of the project with money coming from the $18 million in bonds the city sold in September to finance the project.
Heery will also provide oversight for phase 2 of the West Hollywood Park redesign, which includes building a five-story, 71,000-square-foot recreation center with two rooftop swimming pools in the space where the El Tovar parking lot (behind the five-story library parking deck) now sits. Construction on phase 2 is still a year or more away, but Heery will oversee the pre-construction work, which includes estimating costs, scheduling services, etc. The city will pay Heery $580,000 from future bond sales to finance the park construction.
The city first contracted with Heery in 2008 for construction oversight for the West Hollywood Library and phase 1 of the West Hollywood Park redesign. Heery also did much of the pre-construction oversight work on the “robo-garage.” Since this is viewed as a continuation of the work Heery has already been doing, the city did not put the contracts out for bid.
Heery’s Dan Adams, who served as the project manager for the library and phase 1 of the park, is expected to continue in that capacity on these two projects. The city provides an office for Adams in the Werle Building at 626 Robertson Blvd. adjacent to the park.
During the summer, the city also hired Heery for construction oversight of the giant Sunset-La Cienega retail-hotel-residential project, which broke ground in August on the south side of Sunset Boulevard at La Cienega Avenue. While the CIM Group is developing that project, which is still commonly referred to by its original name of “Sunset Millennium,” the city felt it needed someone to act as its liaison/advocate due to the project size. The CIM Group is covering the $500,000 cost of hiring Heery.
The city also hired Heery to oversee plans for “mothballing” (temporarily preserving) the city-owned house known as “Tara” at 1343 N. Laurel Ave., south of Sunset, until public meetings are held to determine its ultimate use.
The FBI should investigate WEHO City Hall starting with the entire City Council.
Los Angeles is considered the second most corrupt city in the USA: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/02/los_angeles_corrupt_corruption_second_chicago_study.php
WEST HOLLYWOOD had to be third.
Thank the Gods for WEHOville and other growing social media – which can make the WEHO FIVE run for cover.
Duran and Prang running four county offices. LOL. Wait until Duran’s rants and raves on youTube go viral.
Follow the money. And while you are following the money – find out if Heery keeps a small office in City Hall, gratis, to conduct their fascinating WeHo business endeavors; of which they have many.
The saddest part about this is that the city has also short-listed three firms for the design of this major addition: Fred Fisher, Gruen and Associates and Langdon Wilson. These three firms are notorious for their hideous, utilitarian designs. Johnson Favaro, the designers of the widely acclaimed and much beloved library were excluded. Enjoy the library while you can before it is destroyed by one of these hack firms.
I also love how CIM Group, the latest developer of the mammoth Sunset-La Cienega project, is paying Heery’s $500,000 “fee” to oversee the project on behalf of the City. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? I mean, is Heery really going to play the hardball cop on behalf of the City and surrounding residents? I have a feeling that if CIM is paying the $500,000 fee, the only person or entity benefiting is the developer. It has the unpleasant odor of greasy palms.
good question, Todd Bianco: what value does Heery provide? headquartered in Georgia and a subsidiary of UK engineering giant Balfour Beatty, the firm specializes in “consulting and client representation” of government projects. there seem to be few projects that can be done in WeHo without paying Heery International or their “sub consultants” a large fee. they have already cashed in on the misguided Plummer Park plans, and then again on “neighborhood outreach” when the neighborhood was fighting those plans. the numerous Council Chamber design problems have been beyond comical. they certainly have mastered the art of getting municipalities to pay… Read more »
The costs keep piling up for these projects. My question is what value, if any, does Heery bring to any of these projects? What metrics does the City use to evaluate the effectiveness of this highly-paid contractor? It would be nice to know if the hired “construction cop” is saving the City money or if its services are more effective than the City just hiring temporary employees assigned to each project. Looking back to the Library/Park phase one, I remember the Fickett Library being destroyed clandestinely and numerous problems with the City Council Chambers – among other “glitches.” How was… Read more »