Next phase of Las Vegas Convention Center construction set for approval

While construction has begun on the $935.1 million Las Vegas Convention Center expansion, the first steps of the next phase began Wednesday.

The Las Vegas Convention Center District Committee unanimously recommended approval of a $13.5 million contract for a builder representative to oversee the final phase of what will be a $1.4 billion expansion and renovation project.

The committee recommended a contract extension with Cordell Corp., and that decision will go to the LVCVA board of directors for consideration Nov. 13.

Cordell principal and owner Terry Miller has served as the LVCVA’s builder representative on the expansion portion of the project, which includes a 600,000-square-foot exhibit hall project and three stories of meeting rooms northwest of the existing convention center campus on space previously used as a parking lot.

Progress update

Miller and Guy Martin, a partner with the Turner-Martin-Harris joint venture, gave an update on the project’s progress prior to the vote on the contract extension.

Miller said crews first had to relocate NV Energy power lines to trenches on the periphery of the project. They then removed all the asphalt from the parking lot and replaced it with fill dirt about 6 feet high to provide a level platform for the building’s construction.

A two-story visitor information center at Convention Center Drive and Paradise Road and a single-story building with restrooms were demolished and the connection to a pedestrian bridge over Paradise Road was left to be repurposed to connect to the new building.

Miller said the contractor is drilling 595 holes 3 feet in diameter and ranging from 40 to 70 feet deep. Rebar cages will be dropped into the holes and then filled with concrete to form a network of underground columns on which the building will rest.

“Progress is being made, and it’s all on schedule,” Miller said.

Crews must finish building the new exhibition hall by January 2021 to accommodate the CES trade show.

Once the new exhibit hall is opened, the renovation stage would begin with crews taking the Convention Center’s four existing exhibition halls offline for renovation over a two-year period.

The Cordell contract amendment considers paying the company $545,000 a month during new construction and during the early stages of renovation and $169,750 a month for the last 12 months of the contract.

Martin said the contracting joint venture is finishing efforts to hire the last subcontractors and laborers to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 1. The legislation directed 25 percent of the work — about $189.5 million in contracts — to go to Small Business Enterprise-qualified subcontractors.

Women, minorities included

While the legislation doesn’t demand it, Martin said the contractor also established a goal of hiring 14 percent (about $26.5 million of work) to go to minorities and 7 percent (about $13.3 million) to women-owned businesses.

The small-business hiring requirement strictly involves Southern Nevada contractors. But Martin said the contractor would be hard pressed to fill the self-imposed 7 percent quota for women with local businesses. The company opted to give priority to Southern Nevada business women, then Nevada business women and then women from the region to fulfill the goal.

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