How a Critical Delay Sent Costs of St. Louis Convention Center Project Sky High | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

But for the team expanding the America's Center, St. Louis' main convention center, the overall project manager for the columbus oh dump truck work says a critical three-to-six month delay plunged the bidding, award and prices into a far more unforgiving atmosphere than had developed to that point. Postponed bidding led the project team to award phase one to a single bidder, at tens of millions more than the estimate, and may have deprived the project's second phase of any bidders at all.

Originally set to seek bids early last October, the first phase bidding instead was delayed until close to Christmas. When bids finally came in March, things had changed. "That’s a significant delay from what we wanted to see and we were in a much different market," said Craig Lucas of Kwame Builders Group in a meeting with city and county officials April 18.

The expansion project's lone, high-priced phase-one bid and bid-less second phase are just the latest symbols of a punishing national construction market for owners. As Charlotte NC dump truck contractor try to control risk and maximize profits, local news reports indicate solicitations for smaller public projects across the U.S., such as schools and fire stations, have recently yielded similar results to the convention center project. The bids are coming in higher than anticipated, leaving officials to either find more money, revise their plans or hold off until market conditions have calmed.

Calm may not arrive any time soon in the St. Louis area. Contractors are busy working on, among other projects, a big, new soccer stadium and a sprawling headquarters for the National Geospatial Agency.

Financing Set in August 2020

The project financing was initially set in August 2020. Even as the pandemic devastated tourism and travel, St. Louis' leaders and former mayor looked ahead to the positive impact of an expanded convention center. Competing Midwestern city Chicago has 4 million sq ft of convention-related space built out, while Indianapolis has 1 million sq ft to offer potential visitors.

St. Louis' Americas Center convention center has only about 750,000 sq ft of space. Its expansion plan calls for creation of tens of thousands more square footage of exhibit, meeting and support spaces, improved loading docks, a park plaza and freshened entrances and other areas. St. Louis County and the city agreed to each sell $105 million in bonds to pay for the work, which was estimated to cost $175 million at the time.

Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, which operates the convention center, said in a statement at the time that '"once final design columbus oh dump truck work is completed, businesses and residents in our region who columbus oh dump truck work in the construction trades will have a lot of columbus oh dump truck work to do! We couldn’t be more pleased.”

When St. Louis County did issue its bonds, the interest rate was 3% higher than the rate at the time the project was first approved. And an influential state council member from outside the city, according to the St. Louis Business Journal, began opposing the project in August. County and city officials took until April "to resolve the standoff by agreeing to fund a $40 million recreation facility" in another part of the county, the Business Journal reported.

By October, the city and Explore St. Louis had already spent millions to keep the project on track. The spending included $5.5 million of a planned $13-million contract with Fentress Architects and $1.3 million of a planned $9 million for Kwame Building Group, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Another $1.5 million had been spend for demolition needed to clear the way for the expansion.

At the April 18 meeting, Kwame Building's Craig Lucas sought to explain to the construction project committee why the prices had jumped and Charlotte NC dump truck contractor seemed newly picky about the columbus oh dump truck work after so many companies had initially viewed the plans. Only one company, locally based Ben Hur Construction Co., submitted a bid at $123.9 million, far above the $75.4 million estimate.

The planned expansion had broken its budget before it even got out of the gate. 

The project had been planned in two phases, Lucas said at the meeting. Pre-bid meetings with interested companies were followed by five addendums and two clarifications.

Holiday Bid Stirred 'Little Action'

Bid invitations were originally foreseen starting Oct. 8, 2021, but the bids weren't invited until Dec. 22, almost three months later.

That had "a significant impact," said Lucas. "That was a couple of days before Christmas" when there was "not lot of action from [the] contracting community."

When bids were finally received on March 29, the project team "was in a much different market due to Covid, supply chain issues [and] oil price increases," Lucas told the committee. "And then this war thing started," he said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its effect on global fuel prices.  "And it all had a negative impact as far as the market for bidding construction out."

After looking at the market, Lucas said, Kwame "didn't see any value" in rebidding that would "lead to additional bidders," so Kwame recommended awarding the columbus oh dump truck work to Ben Hur.

At that, the committee went into private session to discuss terms and when it emerged voted to approve the award at $8 million below the bid amount with a "negative change order" lowering the overall price but with no cut in project scope.

On the morning of May 17, the champions of the America’s Center expansion temporarily put the problems that have delayed the start of columbus oh dump truck work behind them. Vowing to see the project through to completion, shovels in hand, they lined up at a part of the jobsite where ground had been cleared and tossed some of the soil forward.

The last few years have been trying for the event planning industry, noted Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, “and that makes today even more important: we are back and building something new that will benefit St. Louis and event planners for many years to come.”