Visitors to Highland Park will see more activity around the Frank Cochran Center after the Meridian City Council on Wednesday awarded a multi-million dollar project to overhaul the space.

Efforts to revive the Frank Cochran Center have been ongoing since the building was damaged in a fire in 2019, with the city looking to both repair the damage and renovate the center into a facility more closely tailored to the communities needs.

Mark Davis, of Davis Purdy Architects, which was selected to redesign the Frank Cochran Center, said the lowest and best bid for the project came from Sullivan Enterprises out of Magee at a cost of $3,360,000.

The city had previously set aside $800,000 in insurance money, $1.2 million in a Capital Improvements Revolving loan, which are low interest loans made available through the Mississippi Development Authority to help local governments fund capital improvement projects, and $1 million from the recent $5 million bond issue for upgrades to the city’s parks and recreational facilities.

Davis said his firm had been given a budget of $2.9 million for the project, which would put the cost of the construction roughly $400,000 over budget.

“It’s a little high,” he said.

Parks and Recreation Director Thomas Adams said the city included a buffer in the parks bond in case something goes over budget, and the additional money will be taken from there.

Construction costs, which fluctuated wildly due to labor shortages and supply chain disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic, are still extremely fluid, Davis said, and the Frank Cochran Center project was designed to keep that in mind. A total of nine alternates, or add ons, were included in the project, which would have driven the cost even higher.

Most of the alternates, Davis said, were things like the entry and walkway canopies, decorative features and other items that, while nice to have, were not immediately necessary.

“They were all the things that are going to make this building nice and exciting and having it be something that the city is proud of for a long time,” he said.

With the bid approved, Davis said the next step will be getting the paperwork in order, and then Sullivan Enterprises will be cleared to begin work. That will likely be within the next few weeks, he said.

Construction is expected to continue into next year with a deadline to have the center open and operational by June 27, 2024.