Charlotte council covers shortfall for convention center expansion; some frustrated
The Charlotte City Council voted Monday night to make up a nearly $12 million shortfall in the cost of expanding the city’s convention center, but not before some members expressed frustration at yet another shortfall.
Earlier this year the council found that the planned Cross Charlotte Trail was $77 million over budget.
“The amount by which we were off, and the frequency with which that happens, is frustrating and makes it hard to plan around,” council member Larken Egleston told colleagues Monday. “We can’t keep missing this often and always on one side of the estimate.”
Last fall the council approved what was expected to be a $98 million expansion. Tourism officials say the 23-year-old convention center doesn’t meet the needs of many of the trade and other groups that would use it.
Tom Murray, executive director of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, told council the city was in danger of losing conventions if the shortfall was not covered.
Work already has begun on the project. Among other things, it would increase total leasable space from 550,000 square feet to 600,000 square feet. New meeting spaces with movable walls that can be subdivided also would be included. A pedestrian bridge across Stonewall Street will connect the center to the Blue Line light-rail station and the 700-room Westin Hotel.
City Engineer Mike Davis told council the shortfall was caused by a tight labor market among subcontractors. Among 51 bid packages, he said, 22 exceeded their initial estimates. Some contracts only attracted a single bidder.
While the original contract was for $98 million, Holder-Edison Foard-Leeper Company, which is managing the project, found the final cost to be $114.5 million. The city and the CRVA found $4.6 million but still fell short $11.9 million.
Egleston wasn’t the only council member frustrated by the shortfall.
“There’s something that’s broken at a more basic level,” council member Tariq Bokhari said. “It hits a certain point where we’re going to just lose the public’s confidence in being able to do this kind of work anymore.”
Karen Brand, a CRVA spokeswoman, said the convention center will remain open during construction and the city is actively seeking business during this time. Organizers of the Republican National Convention, scheduled for late August 2020, have the option to ask for construction to be halted. But she said those conversations have yet to happen.
