The contractors for a new Bemidji Veterans home have been announced. Wold Architects & Engineers and Perkins Eastman will be the architects and Adolfson & Peterson Construction will be the construction manager.

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA) is moving ahead with planning for three new State Veterans Homes projects in Minnesota, including the new home in Bemidji. The others will be located in Montevideo and Preston. This is following Federal VA funding being recently committed.

Wold Architects & Engineers and Perkins Eastman are the architects for all of the new Homes. They have been working on these projects for several years and are submitting their designs to regulatory agencies for review and approval. This process is estimated at 60 to 75 days. Once the designs are approved, project construction schedules will come into more focus.

Construction on all three projects will be led by a general contractor and will strive to hire a significant percentage of sub-contractors from the local community. Adolfson & Peterson Construction is the construction manager for the Bemidji project. Knutson Construction is the construction manager for both the Montevideo and Preston projects.

These general contractors will begin soliciting sub-contractors over the next few months. According to a release from MDVA, construction could begin as early as early fall with an 18-month construction schedule.

By — Betsy Melin