Hiring for Las Vegas Convention Center expansion nears

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is close to hiring a general contractor for the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion project, estimated at $860 million.

A Las Vegas company would partner with a New York contractor on a contract under a plan that will be considered by the board.

The awarding of a $2.67 million preconstruction contract to a joint venture that includes Martin-Harris Construction of Las Vegas and New York-based Turner Construction will first be reviewed Thursday by the Las Vegas Convention Center District Committee.

If approved by the six-member committee, the recommendation would go to the LVCVA board of directors for final approval on March 13.

The contract is the next step toward building a 600,000-square-foot state-of-the-art exhibition hall on land now used as a parking lot northwest of the current convention center. It’s part of the LVCVA’s $1.4 billion convention center expansion and renovation program.

LVCVA executives declined interview requests to provide details about the project or the process.

The new exhibition hall would be open by January 2021, and renovations to the existing halls would be completed by 2023.

Once preconstruction work is completed, as it is expected to be within six months, the Turner Martin Harris joint venture would be in line to be the general contractor and would be paid 2.8 percent of the guaranteed maximum price that must first be approved by the LVCVA board.

Martin-Harris and Turner scored highest in an evaluation conducted Jan. 16 among three prospective contractors vying to lead the construction-manager-at-risk-delivered facility. “Construction manager at risk” is a project delivery method by which a firm price for the completed project is agreed upon prior to construction, and the contractor is responsible for cost overruns.

The Turner Martin Harris joint venture finished ahead of Tutor Perini Construction, Los Angeles, and a joint venture by Hunt Building Group and Penta Building Group in the evaluation. They were the top three of five plans submitted after a request for proposals. The Hunt-Penta collaboration recently completed T-Mobile Arena.

Under terms of the agreement, Turner Martin Harris would manage the project for 2.8 percent of the guaranteed maximum price that would be approved by the LVCVA board. The joint venture also would be paid 2 percent of the cost of any construction change orders requested by the LVCVA.

The $2.67 million preconstruction agreement would require the joint venture’s collaboration with the LVCVA, its owner representative, Terry Miller of Cordell Corp., and the already hired architecture and design team.

The contractor also would be responsible for delivering design and construction documents, regulatory permitting, value engineering reviews and construction cost estimating.

Contractors also would make assessments and recommendations on site logistics, phasing and sequencing of work and would set deadlines for construction milestones.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.