Council shifts gears on stadium construction

The City Council in a special meeting this morning decided to abandon the project manager route and hire a general contractor to oversee all facets of construction of MGM Park at Beau Rivage, the downtown baseball stadium and entertainment venue.

The move will allow the city to solicit bids from one overall contractor instead of bidding each individual phase of the project, a process that had already required the time-consuming re-bidding of work after initial bids were above projections.

“The goal here,” said Chief Administrative Officer David Nichols, “is to speed up the process and look to save money.”

The City Council voted unanimously to end the project manager contract with Yates Construction. Nichols said the overall bid package would be available for contractors as soon as two weeks.