This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Dive brief:
- Just over three years after its ceremonial opening, Highmark Stadium is open and ready for business. A Gilbane-Turner joint venture delivered the keys to the finished the $2.1 billion stadium this week, according to an announcement Tuesday.
- The project’s delivery represents the conclusion of a massive public-private partnership and the completion of the largest construction project in Western New York’s history, according to Turner’s announcement.
- The construction of the 1.6 million square foot NFL stadium in Orchard Park, New York not without controversy. However, the ceremonial ribbon cutting represented a victory lap for the project, which crossed its goal line for minority- and women-owned businesses recruitment
Diving knowledge:
According to Turner, nearly 6,000 craftsmen spent about 5 million hours of labor to build Highmark Stadium.
This crew worked to build a 60,108-seat stadium with a 360-degree canopy, designed to mitigate outside wind factors, covering 64% of the seating bowl. Some Bills fans can appreciate heated concourses, radiant heat above some seats and the world’s largest snow-melting system, which will reduce buildup during the Buffalo area’s infamous winters, according to Turner’s release.
“Delivering a stadium of this scale and importance required extraordinary collaboration, innovation and commitment from thousands of people over several years,” Turner vice president Carl Stewart said in the statement. “From the early stages of planning through construction, our team worked together with the Buffalo Bills, Gilbane, New York State, Erie County, business partners and the local community to create a world-class venue that reflects the passion of Bills fans and the strength of Western New York.”
In the equivalent of the first quarter of the project, the project came under fire when then-Erie County, New York, Legislature Speaker April Baskin, who is now a state senator, called out the project team for failing to meet initial minority business hiring goals.
But meeting those goals was one of the highlights of Tuesday’s ceremony and something the project team highlighted earlier this year.
In the end, the project paid off $490 million to MWBE participantsas well as more than $250 million to regional MWBE companies in Western New York. Shares of those contract amounts reflect the percentages agreed upon in the project’s community benefit agreement, which used $1.5 billion as the cost of the stadium, as that was the estimated price at the time of the agreement in 2023.
With Orchard Park Stadium full, the next big NFL stadium looking at the end zone is the $2.1 billion Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., the future home of the Tennessee Titans.
The construction team, consisting of Turner; AECOM Hunt; Brentwood, Tenn.-based Polk & Associates Construction; and Nashville-based ICF Builders & Consultants — ended up in the stadium in november The group is watching February 2027 to end.
Highmark Stadium will host its first official event on August 8: a game for the Bills.
