Cobb County opened four bids Thursday from firms making their pitch to oversee construction of the new Atlanta Braves stadium.
One of the proposals came from the joint venture of Hunt and Holder construction companies — the two major firms handling construction management of the $1.2 billion Falcons stadium. Both the Falcons and Braves facilities will be built at the same time, and both are scheduled to open in 2017.
While the county opened the bids Thursday, it did not reveal any of the bid amounts. That’s because a seven-member committee, made up of county and Braves officials, still have to review the proposals, interview the firms, enter into contract negotiations with its top choice, recommended a winner to the county commission, and have a construction management firm approved by the elected officials.
Joe Tommie, the county’s purchasing director, said the bid amounts represent the construction management firms’ fee for work on the three-year project. The construction manager will provide a guaranteed maximum price, then will independently select all of the firms that will actually build the stadium, which has a budget of $622 million.
“We hope to have a recommendation by Thursday” next week, Tommie said, adding that the plan is for a commission vote on the recommendation May 27.
Other firms bidding on the project are:
- American Builders 2017, a joint venture comprised of veteran stadium builders Mortenson Construction and Barton Malow, along with Atlanta-based firms Brasfield & Gorrie, and New South Construction. Mortenson is based in Minnesota and built Target Field for the Twins and is overseeing construction of a new Vikings stadium.
- A joint venture between Clark Construction and Skanska, a Sweden-based company with an Atlanta office. Clark helped build the Nationals ballpark in Washington, D.C.
- Turner Construction, which bills itself as the largest builder of sports facilities in the U.S. It helped build Yankee Stadium, the Denver Broncos football stadium, and sports facilities at Georgia State, Georgia Tech, along with the north stands expansion of the University of Georgia football stadium.
Hunt Construction Group was also involved in baseball stadiums for the Cardinals and Tigers.
The Braves declined to comment on the bid process until a firm is selected.
To qualify for the project, firms must have experience building at least three major sports facilities in the past 10 years, including one Major League Baseball stadium. It must also have bonding capacity of at least $600 million.
The county commission is also expected to vote on major agreements between the county and Braves related to stadium construction and operations at its May 27 meeting.
