COLUMBUS, Ind. — A bid for a contract to update The Commons’ James A. Henderson Playground has been awarded to PLAYTIME LLC, a playground equipment manufacturing company with global headquarters in Englewood, Colorado.
The Commons Board approved the bid award at a meeting on Wednesday, as did the Columbus Parks Board at a meeting Thursday.
PLAYTIME was one of two bidders who responded to the project. The other was local construction business Dunlap & Company Inc.
Pam Harrell, director of business services for the parks department, said that Dunlap was involved in the construction of the current Commons building in 2010 and 2011.
“They brought in their own primary contractor, and then they were sub-contracting bits and pieces of the project out,” she said. “Whereas PLAYTIME, theirs is all in-house. They have multiple divisions. They’re global. … They specialize in indoor playgrounds. And the team that came here from Colorado is from their indoor playground group.”
PLAYTIME, which prides itself on being “one of the largest commercial indoor playground equipment manufacturers,” has worked with McDonalds and installed play areas in other countries. One of the company’s most notable projects is a South Korean “play space” that, until recently, was the world’s largest indoor theme park.
The project, estimated to be at about $700,000, is being paid for through Commons maintenance funds and grants.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
