The low bidder was selected Friday to construct the Kansas City Chiefs’ indoor practice facility on the campus of Missouri Western State University.

Crossland Construction, based in Columbus, Kan., submitted a base bid of $9.4 million, the lowest of 14 general contractors to vie for the building project. Jeff Ellison, lead architect on the project, recommended to Western’s governing board to accept seven of eight alternate bids Crossland submitted, which brings the total to $10.3 million.

The alternate bid not included — a pre-engineered metal building frame (also called a Butler frame) — would lower the building cost by $218,000. Mr. Ellison said a custom frame, which is more costly and what they are currently considering, is aesthetically more pleasing and easier to build around.

All seven members of the Board of Governors voted to award the project to Crossland, in a telephone poll Friday afternoon.

Mr. Ellison said Crossland indicated that it will use six local subcontractors to work on the structure. However, a list of subcontractors will not be made public until Crossland has completed its legal work with them.

The $13.7 million total project cost is being paid for by city, county and mostly Chiefs’ funding. But since Tuesday, when it was revealed that Crossland submitted the low bid, there has been concern that local workers wouldn’t be involved in the project. Dr. Bob Vartabedian, president of Western, noted that state guidelines prohibit giving preference to a specific contractor, local or out-of-town.

“We have to choose the best and lowest bid,” he said.

But the lowest bidder must also prove it is capable of completing the project satisfactorily. Mr. Ellison said in projects where public money is involved, price gets the first look. Beyond that, he did a background check on Crossland and didn’t find any red flags.

“They have an impressive list of projects,” he said. “They certainly seem qualified for ours.”

Dr. Vartabedian also went through a folder of information on Crossland and is confident Crossland can do the work, and in a timely fashion.

The Board of Governors meet Thursday and will ratify the decision then.

Construction is slated to begin July 1 and will be completed by July 5, 2010. For more information about Crossland Construction, visit http://www.crosslandconstruction.com/.

Jimmy Myers can be reached

at jimmym@npgco.com.