Martel OK'd for construction of sustainability center

Martel Construction has been selected to construct the Whitefish School District’s new Center for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship.

The Whitefish School Board unanimously approved a contract with the firm at the March 14 meeting. The project is set to break ground this spring.

The board received eight submissions for the alternative project delivery contract, which was narrowed down to three firms and eventually to Martel Construction.

The alternative project delivery contract allows the district to choose developers for the project based on a variety of criteria, rather than simply choosing based on price.

Board chair Shawn Watts said each proposal went through a detailed review process.

“For all of us that were on the core team, unanimously we felt like the lengthy and very in-depth process we went through worked,” he said. “We all felt like we ended up where we were supposed to end up as a result of the process, not based on any preconceived ideas or expectations.”

Watts said Martel has had $300 million worth of local general contractor and construction management projects. Included in those projects are the new Whitefish City Hall currently under construction and expansion to The Wave, along with numerous other educational facilities across the state.

“They may be the most prolific in the state in terms of educational facilities,” superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt said of Martel.

Davis Schmidt said the cost for the contract is still being worked out while the project is in its per-construction phase.

The sustainability center has evolved from a $60,000 greenhouse into a two-story, multi-million dollar outdoor learning center, with private funding already secured. About $1.8 million will cover capital expenses, like building and landscaping, while $300,000 will go toward start up costs for educational programming.

Early designs featured a greenhouse attached to a small classroom. Since then, teachers and designers have increased the size, expanded it into a K-12 project, and incorporated outdoor areas like a native plant wetland, a native grassland and an experimental forestry zone. The building is also designed to be net-zero in its energy use, the first in the state of Montana, according to the school district.

The center is set to be located on about 3 acres of land at Pine Avenue and East Fourth Street at Whitefish High School.

Davis Schmidt said construction is set to begin around May 1, provided the weather is cooperating.