The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $14,522,650 construction contract on Sept. 21 to build a new Community Living Center residential neighborhood at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, according to federal contract records. Work begins Sept. 30 and runs 18 months, to March 23, 2028.

The award went to Paramount Construction Group, LLC under contract 36C77626C0087, a firm-fixed-price job won through sealed bidding. Three bids were received. The contract is 100 percent obligated, meaning the full $14.5 million is already committed, not contingent on future appropriations.

The money is real and it is local. The place of performance is the VA campus at 1500 East Woodrow Wilson Avenue, in the 39216 ZIP code, per the VA's own facility listing. The funding agency is VISN 16, the South Central VA Health Care Network, and the awarding office is the VA's Program Contracting Activity Central.

The project, numbered 586-401, calls for site demolition, connection to existing utility infrastructure, and full construction of a facility the solicitation sizes at roughly 12,000 to 15,000 square feet. That includes structural framing, deep foundation drilled piers, mechanical HVAC systems, and architectural finishes.

The solicitation documents, which the Wire reviewed, describe a job with unusual technical demands. Contractors must manage what the bid package calls highly expansive Yazoo clay soils, a familiar problem across the Jackson metro. Drilled piers must embed at least three feet into competent unweathered Yazoo blue clay, with the top of that layer estimated between 307 and 312 feet in elevation.

The work also carries strict infection control risk assessment standards because the new wing ties into an operating hospital. All connections to the existing building fall under ICRA requirements, and exterior glazed openings must meet federal blast design standards. The drawings show resident rooms, bariatric bedrooms, private toilets, a living room, a sunroom, nurse stations, and a screened porch.

The contract is a 100 percent competitive set-aside for certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and the prime must be certified in the SBA's VetCert database. That structure narrows the field, which helps explain the three bids. The solicitation also bars members of the original design team from joining the construction team, and it is a design-bid-build procurement, so the contractor inherits the drawings rather than producing them.

One detail worth watching is asbestos. A 2017 AHERA survey included in the bid package estimates complete abatement at the Community Living Center at $44,000, separate from the main hospital and the research building. The report warns it is not a NESHAP-compliant survey and cannot be used for renovation or demolition notices without further destructive testing, so the abatement figure could move once the contractor opens walls.

Divide the contract by its 18-month term and the job is worth about $807,000 a month in construction spending inside Jackson. That is a modest but steady injection for a metro whose nonfarm payrolls hit a record 302,100 in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics series for the Jackson MSA. The VA contract is the kind of federal anchor work that does not show up in a ribbon-cutting announcement but does show up in subcontractor payrolls.

The award is also a reminder of how much of Jackson's institutional construction now runs through federal procurement rather than the private market. The same USASpending records that produced this contract list a separate $193,080 VA task order for construction program management at the Jackson campus and a $24,837 emergency pipe repair, both awarded in September. The VA is one of the few steady capital spenders left on this side of the metro.

Who pays: federal taxpayers, through the Veterans Health Administration's construction account. Who profits: Paramount Construction Group as prime, plus the subcontractors it will hire for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and site work. The VA has not published a subcontracting plan for the job, and the contract record shows none was required.

What's next: the notice to proceed lands Sept. 30, and the contractor's first visible moves will be site demolition and utility tie-ins. The VA's contracting officer for the job is the point of contact for any schedule changes, and the agency has not said whether it will hold a public groundbreaking. Readers should watch for subcontractor bid notices from Paramount in the coming weeks, which will show how much of the $14.5 million stays with Jackson-area firms.