Flintco and Mortenson will partner to build a new arena for the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder, according to a release from the Oklahoma City Council.
The council voted March 11 to approve the contract with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Flintco and Minneapolis-based Mortenson. The team will construct “a first-class, state-of-the-art NBA arena and entertainment venue that meets and/or exceeds NBA specifications and requirements,” the release said.
The budget for the venue is at least $900 million and it will be at least 750,000 square feet. The council voted to approve a preconstruction contract with the contractors worth $2.275 million, per public documents.
The new arena will go up on the site of Prairie Surf Studios, formerly the Cox Convention Center, which is a city-owned site. The existing structure will be demolished in the spring. Design on the Thunder’s home court is underway already, and construction will begin in 2026, with completion scheduled for 2028 and a contractual obligation to open the new arena by June 2030.
For now, the Thunder will continue to play their home games at Paycom Center, where they moved after the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma and changed their name in 2008. Once the Thunder move to the new venue, a 25-year commitment to remain in Oklahoma City will begin, the release said.
The project will be funded by $50 million from the Thunder ownership group and $70 million in public money from the Metropolitan Area Projects program, or MAPS 4, a one-cent, voter-approved sales tax expected to raise more than $1 billion for various public projects between 2020 and 2028, per the Oklahoman. In addition, when the MAPS 4 tax ends, the city will enact a six-year, one-cent sales tax to help pay for the stadium.
Mortenson is a major player in the stadium construction space, having worked on the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center, the Seattle Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena and the Minnesota Vikings US Bank Stadium.
Meanwhile, Flintco has decades of experience in Oklahoma and built Oklahoma City’s Convention Center and Paycom Center.
“Having built the current arena over 20 years ago, we understand the significance of this project for our city and its future, knowing hundreds of construction jobs will be created to boost our economy,” said Dave Kollmann, Flintco central region president, in the release.
