Dive Brief:

• The publicly owned development authority that will own the new Red Wings hockey arena in Detroit approved $25 million in construction contracts last week.

• The $533 million arena project has a construction budget of $248 million, according to the Detroit Free Press. The developer is Olympia Development of Michigan, and the general contractor is Southfield, MI,-based Barton Malow-Hunt-White, a joint venture among three Michigan commercial contractors.

• The contracts went to Midwest Steel in Detroit; Crown Corr in Gary, IN; and London-based roof specialist Vector Foiltec.

Dive Insight:

A large chunk of the arena’s construction will be performed by local contractors.

More than 33% of the work meted out by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority went to Detroit companies, the Free Press reported. Olympia Development had set the target of hiring businesses either based or headquartered in Detroit for at least 30% of the arena's construction work.

Construction firms with Detroit headquarters won $7.6 million worth of the contracts, while those with businesses in Detroit whose headquarters are outside of the city got $838,109 worth of the work.

The developer has said it will award at least 30% of the arena’s construction contracts to local companies. The project’s development agreement also stipulates that at least 51% of the 5,500 construction workers hired for the arena work must be “bona-fide Detroit residents.”