Gold Coast Transit District (GCTD), Ventura County's largest public transportation provider, announced that its Board of Directors voted unanimously to award the construction contract to build the District’s new Administration and Operations Facility to ICON West, Inc. a Los-Angeles based construction company.
"After many years of planning and hard work, we are excited to have reached this milestone, and now look forward to breaking ground this spring”, said GCTD General Manager Steve Brown. “Building this new facility is critically needed in order for transit services in Ventura County to be expanded and sustained into the future.
GCTD's maintenance and operations offices, along with its fleet of 56 buses, are currently housed on a three-acre facility near downtown Oxnard. Limited space and its residential location have posed many expansion challenges over the last forty years since it first opened its doors. The new 15-acre site near Auto Center Drive and Paseo Mercado in Oxnard will allow GCTD to maintain a fleet of up to 125 buses in the future. The state-of-the-art facility will include an administration and operations building, fleet maintenance and repair building, a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel station and bus wash. The facility will enable GCTD to better serve its customers, residents, employees, visitors, and future transit riders.
After a competitive bid process, ICON-West was selected for the $35-million contract. Bernard Ashkar, ICON’s CEO, spoke at the February Board of Directors’ meeting and stated, “I speak for my entire team in saying that we are greatly looking forward to this partnership and building a functional, environmentally-sustainable facility that will allow GCTD to serve its community into the future.” The contract includes a geographic preference requirement which stipulates that a minimum of 20% of all construction hours performed on the project shall be performed by residents of Ventura County.
The cost of the new facility is provided by a combination of state and federal grants, including a $15-million U.S. Department of Transportation grant and $11-million in Prop 1B Safety and Security grants. Designed by architects RNL and Maintenance Design Group, the building will also be environmentally friendly, meeting all CalGreen requirements and is expected to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. It is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2018.