A clout-heavy company with two generations of ties to the Daley family was chosen in the waning days of Richard M. Daley’s administration to build a $50.3 million rental car campus at Midway Airport, records show.
The latest in a gravy train of contracts with Walsh Construction — generating $938 million in payments since 1994 — was awarded on May 9, one week before Rahm Emanuel was sworn in as mayor.
The project will be financed by a $3.75 fee on every rental car transaction at Midway imposed years ago in anticipation of the “consolidated rental car facility” on the northeast corner of 55th and Laramie.
On the western half of the site, Walsh will build a four-story, 1,870-space garage — complete with a “green roof” that includes wind turbines and solar panels. The lobby of the garage will include a customer service facility where patrons can rent and return vehicles and board shuttle buses to the Midway terminal.
The eastern portion of the site will include a “quick-turn-around” facility accessible only to rental car employees. That’s where cars will be fueled, washed and prepared for rental. Nine car wash bays will be capable of washing 45 vehicles per hour.
Last summer, the City Council approved Daley’s plan to slap an $8 fee — known as a “customer facility charge” — on rental car transactions at O’Hare Airport to bankroll a $393 million facility that will consolidate O’Hare rental car companies into a central location to make way for a new runway.
The daily fee was more than double the Midway fee, which rental car customers have been paying since 2005, generating $35 million in revenues.
Walsh was the lowest of four bidders for the Midway project, which could run as high as $80 million, according to bid documents prepared by the city.
The next lowest bidder — a joint-venture between F.H. Paschen and S.N. Nielsen & Associates — offered to build the facility for just over $50.7 million.
Records show that Walsh was one of the city’s most prolific contractors during Daley’s 22-year administration.
Company Chairman Matthew Walsh’s father grew up with Daley’s father, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. Before the Hired Truck scandal prompted Richard M. Daley to swear off campaign contributions from city contractors, the Walsh family had been a reliable contributor.
Walsh Construction rescued Millennium Park from cost overruns and oversaw the $200 million reconstruction of Wacker Drive. In 2009, Walsh got a $79 million contract to build the third and final runway in Phase One of Daley’s massive O’Hare expansion project.
Earlier this year, the company got a $101.8 million contract to build intersection improvements and grade separation at 130th, Brainerd and Torrence on the city’s Far Southeast Side.
In 2005, Walsh provided a safe landing for ousted Building Commissioner Stan Kaderbek, who worked with Walsh as the city’s bridge engineer during the Wacker Drive project.
When black aldermen complain about the paltry share of city contracts awarded to African Americans, they inevitably complain about the inordinate share of city contracts awarded to Walsh.