IF All is planning, the Thunder Oklahoma City, which is now competing in the NBA Western Conference Finals, will play in a new $ 950 million scenario to complete in June 2028. For Flintco, in Tulles, part of the joint company chosen in March as the new contractor of the arena, the selection caused memories of the expensive error of the company The main sand.
Flintco, founded in 1908 a few years after the state of Oklahoma, had a low price than the sand, now known as the Paycom Center, which completed in 2002 for $ 89 million.
The new project has unleashed a new perspective on what happened.
In 1999, a lower competitive offer was the only legal option for public projects by virtue of the Oklahoma Public Competence Tender Law. The city had a budget of $ 94.5 million, with $ 76.5 million for construction. Flintco launched the hat to the ring for what was called Ford Center in the typical prices promoted competition.
The sealed offers were opened on March 11, 1999.
The Flintco $ 66 million offer, $ 10 million below the city’s construction budget, and $ 21 million under the highest offer, assured the contract. The former mayor Kirk Humphreys called the offer “too good to be true.”
It was.
The Vice President of Flintco at that time, Jay Harris, confirmed the reason why Flintco left so much money on the table in a story that appeared at the number of March 12, 1999 Oklahomasteth Diari: The contractor had made a “significant” mistake in the price calculations of the subcontractor.
According to the OklahomastethHarris admitted that the real cost approached $ 73 to $ 75 million, which lined up with rival offers.
The calalclculation put Flintco at a crossroads.
The withdrawal of the withdrawal lost an obligation of $ 3 million, unless the error was legally excusable. The city’s leaders were waiting for Flintco’s decision, with the City Council ready to govern the confiscation of bonds.
Dave Kollmann, the current President of the Western Region of Flintco, was really in the offer room when Flintco’s offer number was calculated.
“Flintco was a local contractor,” he recalls, “and we felt this work was a great opportunity to delve into the next level of contractors who made a 20,000 -place scenario. And there was just in our yard.
Flintco went to his insurance, warranty and maintainer companies and requested a discount for work.
“We said, well, you know, we want yours to offer us competitively, even cheaper than you would do to someone, you know, because we will go to work. And if we get the job, get the job. So it was this kind of mentality,” says Kollmann.
“We have also made specifics, so we used our own numbers for this.”
After Flintco won the offer and announced its bid price price low, something unexpected happened.
Kollmann says: “The next day, many commercial partners offered to us saw the offer tab and then came to us and said that, for example, if their number was $ 3.2 million, they said, well, we will come for $ 3 million. They tightened their own number and tried to help us.”
The concept for a new area in Oklahoma City is still being perfected. Graphic: Oklahoma City Map Program.
This kind of good faith support went a long way.
Following the one -week deliberation, Flintco decided to honor the offer. It Oklahomasteth He reported that “Flintco Vice President Mark Grimes said that after” long days of hard work and soul search nights, “the company would honor the candidacy.”
“” Maybe our offer was too good to be true, “said Grimes,” “but our acceptance should not be a surprise. Flintco is a 91 -year -old family -based company, and hard work is number one.”
Flintco handed the sand at a cost in Oklahoma City between $ 87.7 million and $ 89.2 million, a robbery compared to a time when sands cost $ 130 million or more, as Kollmann recently pointed out. “Everyone met to do it -we did it on time and well within the owner’s budget. The job ended well.”
By 2020, Oklahoma legislators modified public works and the State Public Building Statute to allow construction risk contracts, where the contractor works closely with designers and owners in cost and range, and then guarantees a maximum price after much of the design and subcontractor packages.
The success of the thunder
In recent years, in other cities, according to the Sports Sports website, taxes approved by voters for Arenas have failed. Oklahoma City mayor David Holt, who supported the sales tax measure, admitted that “cities like ours never have leverage in these situations.” Thunder’s owner Clay Bennett and his partners never explicitly threatened to leave Oklahoma City, but he is one of the smallest markets in the NBA, and Paycom’s center could be considered obsolete.
The voters approved the project in December 2023, funded by a 72 -month sales tax, a hundred, $ 70 million from the city’s metropolitan area initiative (Maps) $ 50 million from Thunder owners, avoiding any tax rise.
Two other contractors, Austin Commercial and a joint company between Turner Construction and Lingo Construction, sought the contract for the new arena.
But in March, the Council of the City of Oklahoma unanimously awarded a contract of construction at risk to the joint company of Ma Mortenson-Flintco.
“And now we are here,” says Kollmann, “twenty-six years later, preparing to build the next.”
Flintco now has many major regional projects under his belt and Mortenson, the NBA contractor as Chase Center, will collaborate with Manica Architecture and TVS to perfect designs and costs. Conceptual plans must be established this summer.
At the time of the project prize, the director of the MAPs program, David Todd, explained to the members of the City Council how the new construction risk process works.
The director of the MAPs program, David Todd, explained to the members of the City Council how the new construction risk process works. Image: YouTube YouTube Channel of YouTube Video Screenshot Capture Oklahoma City Council
The joint venture, he continued, “will join the design team in an early stage and will be able to help us with prices and help us understand the availability of materials, value engineering and these kinds of things.”
“Later, you will see the tender of the project at the level of the subcontractor. Thus, this process was not undone (tender). Only pushes it a little later in the process and the general contractor will be at the forefront,” Todd reassured the members of the Council.
The new arena will support various uses with rapid reconfiguration for Thunder basketball games, concerts, NCAA tournaments and other events. The city officials spoke of the expected guspira of the project to economic growth, from jobs to vibrant events of the center.
For Oklahoma City, it is a “full circle” time, as Kollmann has said, which keeps the city “big league”.
