County tees up $504k design-build deal to make Benson Cabin livable again

The Board of County Commissioners is being asked to turn its March direction into an executable deal: a not-to-exceed $504,190 design-build contract with Serenity Development and Management (working with CoRRnice Architecture) to rehabilitate the historic Benson Cabin at 445 E. Kelly Ave. for county employee housing. The action item in the BCC Meeting Packet — Benson Cabin also formalizes use of Teton County Employee Housing SPET dollars for the work, after earlier site prep, testing, and relocation costs totaled $369,923.78.

The procedural hinge here is that approval moves the project out of the “historic artifact in storage” phase and into Town of Jackson permitting. The contract sets a substantial completion date of Feb. 28, 2027 (certificate of occupancy), includes $500 per day liquidated damages for delay, and uses value-engineering choices that cut a proposed front deck and stair landings to fund triple-pane windows instead. If commissioners do not approve the contract, staff warns the cabin remains limited to non-habitable storage use.