| Print | Close Window | AMO Currents - Posted: May 29, 2009 |
Bids indicate new AMO HQ would cost significantly less than projected
“We’re drawing extremely competitive bids from qualified contractors,” Bethel said. “The cost of the headquarters building as designed would drop from approximately $4.9 million to approximately $3.9 million — in this case, the weak economy is working to our union’s strong advantage.”
Builders and construction suppliers in South Florida “are taking an especially hard hit in the nationwide recession,” Bethel explained. “They need the work desperately, and AMO needs the building — we cannot wait for economic conditions to improve if we are to complete the project at the lowest possible cost.”
Bethel said the construction would be paid for from the proceeds of the imminent sale of 6.5 acres of AMO-owned land in Dania Beach, Florida, to the AMO Safety and Education Plan.
“The S&E Plan now leases the land from AMO for the operation of its Simulation, Training, Assessment and Research Center — STAR Center, the training, certification and upgrading program available to all deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members,” Bethel noted.
He continued: “Under a ‘Prohibited Transaction Exemption’ granted recently by the U.S. Department of Labor, the AMO Safety and Education Plan can buy the property and existing buildings and proceed with the planned expansion of STAR Center. A portion of the money raised from the sale would pay for the new AMO administrative complex, and the rest would count as a windfall to the AMO treasury.”
The AMO headquarters building would be built on a separate parcel owned by AMO in Dania Beach, across from what Bethel called the “cramped and increasingly uncomfortable two-story building we now refer to as ‘headquarters.’” The site of the proposed building now includes the AMO accounting department and the AMO membership services desk.
Construction remains subject to approval by the AMO membership in a union-wide secret ballot mail referendum administered by True Ballot Inc., an independent firm retained by American Maritime Officers to conduct all AMO elections and referenda. Voting began in April 2009, and ballots will be counted in July 2009.
“This would be our union’s first real and fully functional headquarters,” Bethel said of the union. “It would allow for greater operating efficiency and smoother service to AMO members and their families, and it would more accurately reflect our union’s standing as the nation’s foremost union of licensed seagoing professionals.
“AMO members have done much to make our union what it is today,” Bethel continued. “They deserve a central site equal to the quality they represent each day in each deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland job.”
A rendering of the proposed building is available on the official AMO Web site.
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