Recently the City of Saginaw in Mid-Michigan decided to get out of the business of show business. Due to record subsidies to operate the Saginaw Civic Center the City decided to board up the 7000 seat arena, 2800 seat theater and convention facility. Many people in the community rallied to save the aging facility as a quality of life issue.

After many debates the County of Saginaw entered into agreement to lease the Civic Center for 10 years. The County's plan for a turn around was simple: bring in professional, private management to operate the facility and provide capital improvements to the facility to make it more competitive in the marketplace. Through an engineering study the County determined that $14 million would be required to improve the facility. The decision was left to the voters in a special election for a millage to raise the money. The constituents voted in favor of the millage and the County moved forward with its plan.

SMG was selected to operate the facility and was asked to provide input into the scope items for capital improvement to the newly named "Saginaw County Event Center". The major task confronting the project now was designing and constructing the renovation with as little impact to the revenue streams to the building while allowing the people of Saginaw County to see their tax dollars at work.

Saginaw County decided to address this issue through design/build project delivery. By using this method there is one contract between the Owner and contractor and the contractor is also responsible for the design. This method will allow the construction to be complete by December 2003 while having a minimal impact on scheduled events. The time frame for the entire project can be compressed as the design and construction can take place concurrently instead of on independent critical paths as on traditional design, bid, and build projects.

In this case it also made sense to go design build in order to maintain the project budget. With a fixed dollar amount for the work prospective bidders where given a list of items to address and gave the County proposals stating what they could do within the given budget. Items being addressed in this project include a new unified sense of entry to the facility, electrical improvements, HVAC improvements, new interior décor and finishes, interior and exterior signage, new seating in the theater and arena, updated concessions areas and commercial kitchen, loading dock improvements, roof replacement, lighting improvements, a new fire alarm system, updated security systems and a new energy management systems. 

With the up front input of the facility management, the County, the designers and the contractors, the scope of the project can be fine tuned to meet the needs of all the different players involved. Scheduled events are able to go on, new shows can be booked, the facility can have scheduled down time in the summers for construction when facility is traditionally at it's slowest, improvements can be made in such a way as to enhance revenue, and the people of Saginaw County can have a quality of life enhancing venue poised to thrive into the 21st century.

Article submitted by Darrick Huff, P.E. of Spicer Group

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