Clarifying comments made Monday by team owner Arthur Blank, the Falcons said today that the construction cost of their new downtown stadium hasn’t changed yet again.
Blank said during a Rotary Club of Atlanta panel discussion that the stadium would cost $1.5 billion, which would be $100 million more than the $1.4 billion “final” budget approved by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority board in December.
However, Kim Shreckengost, executive vice president of Falcons parent company AMB Group, said today that Blank was including some financing costs in Monday’s figure and that the budget to build the stadium remains $1.4 billion.
“The additional costs are related to Falcons’ stadium financing costs leading up to the opening of the stadium,” Shreckengost said. “They include interest and fees on construction loans and any initial fees on longer-term financing vehicles put into place as we get closer to opening the stadium.”
She said those financing costs total about $70 million and that Blank rounded up to arrive at the $1.5 billion figure.
“The guaranteed maximum price of stadium construction remains at $1.4 billion,” Shreckengost said.
The budget approved by the GWCCA board in December included $1.078 billion as the price set by general contractor Holder Hunt Russell Moody to construct the stadium and $322 million in soft costs and contingency funds.
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