Mayor Tom Donaldson said the city hopes to award contracts next week for the construction of its parking garage.

City council will have a special meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday with the intention of approving contracts for the $4.6 million garage to be built near the corner of East Cunningham and South McKean streets.

Council also hopes to give the go-ahead to the sale of bonds to finance the work.

However, both moves are dependent upon the developer of the neighboring 76-room hotel finalizing the agreement to buy the property at the corner of East Jefferson and South McKean streets — a deal the city has been waiting on for weeks.

“Everything the city does with this garage hinges on what the hotel does,” Donaldson said.

The city had previously hoped to award the contracts at council’s meeting July 23, but was unable to do that because J.S. Capitol, the developer of the Marriott Springhill Suites hotel, had not yet bought the property from the city redevelopment authority.

Donaldson said J.S. Capitol is expected to buy the land on Tuesday.

“If that doesn’t happen — that’s a problem,” Donaldson said, adding the project could be at risk if it continues to have delays.

However, Paul Dunn, project manager for J.S. Capitol, expects the deal to be done next week.

“We’re confident it will get done,” he said. “We had some people out of town that delayed it, but it’s moving forward.”

The mayor said the city cannot keep pushing the contract letting date back because it must sell its bonds and award contracts for the garage by mid-September to meet the 60-day deadline of when it opened the project’s bids on July 15. Donaldson said realistically the city needs to have everything in order by mid-to-late August at the latest.

Donaldson said any more delays with the project could jeopardize it from moving forward.

“If we have to rebid, prices will likely go up,” Donaldson said. “That’s the way it works.”

The city may not be able to afford any additional costs.

It approved spending up to $7 million on the project, but that includes $1.8 million for the parking authority’s existing debt and $311,000 for the West New Castle Street bridge replacement project. Those added costs bring the bond issue close to $6.8 million.

The city also would have to restart the process of acquiring a bond issue through a bank, Donaldson said.

The mayor said he still expects things to work out next week.

“I plan to be in a position to move forward with the project,” he said.

But he added there are nerves involved with waiting.

“You never know what could go wrong before then,” he said.

Should the project move forward Wednesday, Donaldson said he wouldn’t expect a groundbreaking on the garage to occur until later in August or September.

UHL Construction of Allison Park has the lowest bid of $3.6 million for the general contracting for the structure. Electrical and plumbing work will add about $242,000 in expenses.

Other costs in the project include $190,000 for engineering, $200,000 for gates and stations, $20,000 for security, $205,000 for contingency and change orders, $75,000 for contract management and $100,000 for inspections.

The 239-space garage and hotel would join an already completed Rite Aid pharmacy as part of the downtown revitalization project.