City determined to deliver Downtown El Paso arena on time, on budget

With a price tag of $180 million or more, the Multipurpose Cultural and Performing Arts Center, slated to be built in Downtown El Paso, is by far the largest project from the 2012 quality of life bond.

Just this past spring, the city’s renovation of San Jacinto Plaza was completed more than a year late.

The city took a lot of heat over the problems that plagued the renovation. Officials said they did learn some hard lessons and are determined not to repeat.

El Paso City Rep. Michael Noe recalled the start of the San Jacinto project. “At the time, we got what we thought was the best deal for the city, it was the lowest bid. And you are always trying to watch every dollar you spend,” Noe said.

Construction began in February 2014. It was supposed to take about a year, but the public didn’t get its first look until spring 2016.

“Yeah, there were some moments when the council was meeting that people were extremely vocal and angry,” Noe said.

Things started to go wrong from the very start.

Khalil Zaied, the El Paso deputy city manager for public works, explained the bids that came in for the project. “There were three bids received at the time. The bids ranged from around $4.8 million to around $7.5 million. And it was given to the lowest bid,” Zaied said.

The contract went to Basic IDIQ. Other companies balked at that price, telling City Council the renovation couldn’t be done on time for the winning bid of $4.5 million.

Zaied came to El Paso after the San Jacinto Project, but shared his insight. “When you bid on lowest bid, that is what you usually get. Looking at the three bids that we had, it is obvious that the lowest bid is a lot smaller than the other two. That tells you that is not the market value for the bid itself,” Zaied said.

Over the next two years, numerous changes delayed the project. Pipes and wiring were rerouted, and new trees were added. A damaged canopy cable from Germany set the project back further.

“This is a company (Basic IDIQ) that has done work for us before. They do very good work. They had never done a project such as this before,” Noe said.

Zaied brought his decades of experience from Baltimore to address a perceived lack of leadership in the city’s engineering department.

But how can taxpayers count on the city to deliver the arena on time and on budget if the renovation of the much smaller San Jacinto Plaza was such a nightmare?

City Rep. Cortney Niland said the city is reaching out to those with experience building arenas of this size.

“(We wanted) to make sure this project was not going to go over budget. We are going to make sure we deliver it on time. We’ve learned from the mistakes we have made in the past. We have crossed every t, dotted every i and looked under every hood making sure these decisions were the correct ones,” Niland said.

“We have also brought in some people — a new city engineer and two new deputy city engineers to come and help out with the process. So, we will have (a) whole inside and outside set of eyes working on this project, making sure it is delivered and delivered on time and on budget,” Zaied added.

The city points out the two projects can’t be compared on an apples-to-apples basis. The arena is much larger and will have a different type of bidding process.

Once hired, “a construction manager at risk” will be committed to delivering the project for a guaranteed maximum price.

There are still some smaller quality of life projects to be completed. The bidding process, however, will be much different than that used for the San Jacinto Plaza renovation.

“We have decided we are not going to incorporate the lowest price, but look at other aspects of experience as well,” said Noe.

Back in August, City Council awarded a contract for $4.8 million to International Facilities Group to help with site selection and gathering bids for the arena’s operator.

The projected opening date is late 2019 or early 2020.