Project officials said that the change in contractors will not impact the project’s completion dateOAK VIEW GROUP
Oak View Group named Mortenson the new general contractor for the renovation of KeyArena, with Skanska Hunt "stepping away after having been on the project since late July," according to Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. OVG also announced that architectural firm Rockwell Group has been "contracted to design the arena’s suite and club levels" -- an addition expected to drive the final arena price tag up toward $825M and possibly $850M. Project officials said that the change will "not impact the project’s completion date and that all costs are being absorbed privately by OVG and its partners." Word that Skanska Hunt was "pulling away from the project has been circulating since a KeyArena groundbreaking ceremony held last Wednesday." A source said that there had been "friction between the company and OVG over project pricing, timeline, scope and repeated change orders." The source added that Skanska Hunt had been asked to sign a Guaranteed Maximum Price document but "declined to do so." Initially estimated at just under $600M when OVG "won a request for proposals bid" in June '17, the final price tag on the arena had rose to $700M by this past summer and then $800M last week. While the cost of the arena "keeps mounting, much of that is due to additional features being added by OVG and NHL Seattle." The addition of Rockwell Group as interior designer "brings an additional -- and pricey -- level of sophistication the private developer is willing to pick up the tab on in addition to other soaring costs" (SEATTLE TIMES, 12/12).
