COEUR d'ALENE - After years of speculating and estimating, the McEuen Field project costs are in, and the downtown park may have something close to a $14 million price tag after all.

The lowest base bid for the McEuen Field reconstruction project came in at $14.6 million Tuesday, submitted by Coeur d'Alene-based Contractors Northwest Inc.

The base bids for the project, submitted by six contractors, ranged from $14.6 million to $17.7 million, in the wheelhouse of what park designers had estimated.

"I think we certainly have a project," said Mayor Sandi Bloem, after the costs were unveiled at City Hall in front of a room full of city staff, park designers and vying contractors. "Meaning we have some numbers we can work with, it certainly appears."

CNI's bid was roughly $300,000 cheaper than the second lowest bid of $14.99 million, submitted by Lydig Construction, in Spokane.

The base bid does not include seven add alternate components tied to the project.

Those are itemized components that can be worked in if financing allows, such as colored concrete on Front Avenue, additional wings to the park's main pavilion and a promenade on Front Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets. CNI's add alternates equal $699,750. All in, CNN's bid would be $15.3 million.

"We're excited," said Dick Stauffer, park designer, after the bid numbers came in. "Those were right in the range of what we were hoping for."

City officials had estimated the project to be around $15.5 to $16 million, without add alternates, when they sent it out to bid at the beginning of February. Estimates of the park during the design process had dipped as low as $14.2 million, hovered between $23 million and $27 million for a spell, and had been as high as $39 million after the robust conceptual park plan had been introduced two years ago.

CNI's low bid does not mean it will be the one the City Council accepts at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Park designers and city staff will review the bids to ensure they are compliant before they recommend one bid for the City Council to vote on during a special call meeting.

"We're very happy to have it," said Dean Haagenson, CNI CEO, on the low bid. Haagenson did not attend the opening at Old Council Chambers, but had received word of the results shortly after they were announced and said the company would be eager to get to work on a new job it has needed. "It would be rewarding to build McEuen Park for the city - something that will endure.

"We were very aggressive on this bid," he added.

The other base bids were $15.9 million by Leone & Keeble, Inc., of Spokane; $16.1 million from Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction, with a main office in Utah; $16.8 million by Ginno Construction of Idaho, Inc., of Coeur d'Alene; and $17.7 million by Apollo Inc., of Kennewick, Wash.

Each base bid included a sun dial component for the park, and individualized light fixtures. Those could cost around $56,000, according to CNI, though other bids had them pegged higher. But they could also be pulled out of the bid to make the project cheaper. It will be up to the city to budget contingency costs.

While Tuesday's opening provided hard figures, the numbers had their doubters, as the park project always has had.

Frank Orzell, who organized an unsuccessful recall effort against the city's pro-project incumbents, said he doesn't expect the project to cost what CNI says it will. The estimates on the large-scale project have shifted over two years, and won't stop changing now, he said.

"This is the largest project ever undertaken by the city. The size and the complexity, the newness of it, makes it high risk," he said. "To think it's going to come in anywhere near those numbers - it's dreams. It's the stuff dreams are made of."

The base bids include dozens of amenities, some of which park designers worked back into the design at the last minute. A waterfront promenade, main pavilion, children's play ground, tennis courts and basketball courts are all a part of the made-over park.