City and school officials said Tuesday that Somerville’s work under the Massachusetts School Building Authority process is proceeding and that the city has begun procuring an owner’s project manager but that firm cost estimates for the Winter Hill–Brown school options will not be available until this fall.

The MSBA-related procurement has attracted strong interest, Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management Raich told the joint committee, with about “a dozen firms” attending a pre-bid briefing and staff expecting to interview at least three candidates. Questions from applicants are due next week and proposals will follow, Raich said.

Why it matters: the Consolidation Advisory Group (CAG) and city decision-makers have said they need updated cost estimates to finalize any recommendation on whether to combine Winter Hill and Brown schools, renovate separately, or pursue other options. Multiple officials on the joint committee underscored that work on non-cost issues can proceed now, but the CAG cannot make a final fiscal decision without the fall estimates.

Raich said the fall cost estimates will be developed by the OPM working together with the selected designer; the OPM will assist the city in selecting that designer. He told the committee that any earlier public expectations for cost figures likely referenced statements made before Somerville formally entered the MSBA process and that the city has been “very consistent that we would not be having cost estimates for different concepts until the fall of this year.”

Committee members asked whether the fall estimates would include the costs to mothball, demolish, repurpose or otherwise dispose of the Brown School building in scenarios where schools are combined. Raich said the OPM and designer will be asked to develop ranges of possibilities and reasonable associated costs, including interim housing and disposition credits or costs for Brown. He described this as a complex task that will require mapping out multiple scenarios and associated cost ranges rather than single-point figures.

Several members of the City Council and School Committee pressed for clarity on timing: without those fall numbers, they said, the CAG cannot make a final recommendation to the mayor this year. Raich and other staff reiterated the schedule that the OPM procurement is underway and that the design team will be procured after the OPM is on board.

The committee left the item in committee as a standing update and asked staff to continue monthly coordination with MSBA applicants and to provide further schedule updates as procurement advances.