SunTrust Park `bricks and sticks’ to cost $462 million

The price tag for steel, concrete, labor, plumbing, electrical and most of the other items that go into building SunTrust Park will be $462 million — hard construction costs negotiated between the Atlanta Braves and the stadium builder.

The so-called “Guaranteed Maximum Price,” or GMP, was revealed Tuesday during a meeting of the Cobb Commission.

The overall budget for the new baseball stadium remains the same — $622 million, with the team’s option to add $50 million to the project if it wishes.

The GMP is a not-to-exceed price for the labor and construction materials, or the cost of “bricks and sticks.” It is meant to insulate the owner from cost overruns because any construction expenses beyond the GMP are covered by the construction management firm, American Builders 2017, unless the team or county cause the additional expenses by asking for changes.

The GMP does not include so-called “soft costs,” such as land acquisition, or fees for attorneys, architects and construction management; nor does it include landscaping, parking and utilities at the site. Those additional costs are the major difference between the GMP, and the overall project budget.

“They’re basically a hedge against overruns — the construction manager agrees to come in below a certain maximum price, while the team guarantees a flat fee (to the construction manager) even if costs end up being less than what was originally budgeted,” said Neil deMause, an author who studies public financing of stadiums.

The Braves and American Builders 2017 have been negotiating the GMP for nearly a year.

“Parking, landscaping, anything they want to do beyond (the GMP) is on” the Braves, commissioner JoAnn Birrell said.

But the GMP also reveals how much of the stadium the county is building.

The county and Braves have long calculated the percentage of public investment in terms of the $672 million overall project cost, or 45 percent. But the public money can be spent only on “costs of construction,” or the types of expenses in the GMP, according to the stadium development agreement signed by both sides in May 2014.

The county’s $300 million is 65 percent of the GMP price.

Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Cumberland area in which the stadium is being built, said that’s an unfair way to think about the public funding.

“That would be saying that you can build a stadium without having any of the other planning, design work and everything else involved in getting to the point where you can do the bricks and sticks,” Ott said. “I just don’t think you can do the project without the other soft costs.”

The stadium development agreement between the Braves and Cobb requires the county to approve of the GMP in a resolution. Cobb’s project manager, Heery International, reviewed the GMP and recommends approval.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked for the GMP documents reviewed by Heery as part of its review, but Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s office told the newspaper that it would have to submit a request under the Georgia Open Records Act, which allows the county three days to respond.

It appears the Braves intend to spend the extra $50 million and increase the stadium project budget to $672 million. A recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Braves’ parent company Liberty Media placed the stadium cost at $672 million.

Braves officials have said they would spend the extra money if they determined more parking was required on the site. The team announced in December its intention to purchase the Genuine Parts site near the stadium, and said it would most likely be used for parking.

In addition to the GMP, County Manager David Hankerson provided an update on stadium construction Tuesday morning:

The stadium, along with a large portion of the private, mixed-use development, is scheduled to open in April 2017.