ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV17 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The developer whose winning bid to develop new student housing at James Madison University was higher than a competitor's offer is the same man who struck an unusual lease agreement with the school three years ago.
LB&J Limited of Harrisonburg has complained about the award of the contract to developer Bill Neff. Earlier this month, LB&J requested documents related to the contract from the university's procurement director, the Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg reported.
In 1993, Neff leased the university a modular building as a starter home for the school's new College of Integrated Science and Technology. A renewable five-year lease would pay Neff about $700,000 in an arrangement that state education officials called unique.
LB&J proposed developing new housing for 300 students for $367,000.
Neff won the contract with a bid of about $491,000. LB&J Limited submitted the low bid of $367,000.
University spokesman Fred Hilton said Neff's proposal came closer to what the school asked for in its request for bids. James Madison was not obligated to accept the lowest bid, Hilton said.
LB&J official Bruce Forbes took his complaint about the award to the City Council this week. Forbes, the only other bidder apart from Neff, claims Neff's proposal would violate zoning conditions.
Neff proposed building a 300-bed hotel by Nov. 30. Forbes' proposal involved leasing housing that was already available or under construction.
Hilton said Forbes' plan isn't viable. Forbes proposed leasing fewer than the required number of spaces and placing as many as eight students in areas meant for four, Hilton said.
``If the proposal from Neff had been disallowed for some reason, we would not have accepted that other proposal anyhow. It just didn't meet our needs,'' he said.
Within the next two weeks, the university will get an influx of 400 more freshmen than originally expected. School officials are trying to meet the space crunch by putting students at a nearby motel, an apartment complex and even a renovated downtown furniture store.
The building Neff leased to the university in 1993 had water damage and other problems that took several months to repair. The building did not open for classes as planned in the fall of that year, and Neff ended up paying most of the additional renovation cost.
Neff has said he purchased the modular building at an auction with the idea of using it for temporary classroom space. Neff had the building hauled to the campus in pieces, and then erected on school-owned land.
The State Council of Higher Education said while leasing space off-campus is common, no other state-sponsored university had arranged the lease of a building on its own property.
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