A Cordova tribe's company will rebuild the Labor Department Great Hall

The rooms where the U.S. Department of Labor holds its ceremonies and announcements are going to be rebuilt by a company owned by the tribal government in Cordova, a fishing town on Prince William Sound that is not connected to Alaska's highway system.

Coho Construction Management won $10,131,954 to overhaul the auditorium, the Great Hall and the mezzanine of the Frances Perkins Building, built in 1974 as the department's headquarters and used since for its ceremonies, press events and official gatherings. The contract period begins Sept. 10 and runs two years, with a total potential value of $14.3 million.

The ownership runs from the Native Village of Eyak, the federally recognized tribal government at Cordova, through Alaska Native General Services, which does business as Copper River Management Company, to Coho. The group markets itself as the Copper River Family of Companies.

It has nothing to do with Copper River Seafoods, the privately held processor founded by Alaska fishermen that also traces its roots to Cordova.

The tribal structure is not the one most Alaskans know, and Cordova has both kinds in it. The Eyak Corporation is the ANCSA village corporation there, and like any Alaska Native corporation it issues stock to individual Native shareholders and pays them dividends. The Native Village of Eyak is the tribal government, and it owns the Copper River companies outright. Income from them goes back to the tribe rather than to individual shareholders, funding health and social services, jobs and job training for its members.

Competition for the Labor Department job was restricted to small businesses, and three firms bid. The contract is firm-fixed-price, which puts the risk of ordinary cost overruns within the agreed scope on Coho.

It is not the company's largest federal work. Coho also holds contracts worth $28 million with the Army and $16.6 million with the Air Force.