Report: WA convention center paid Skanska-Hunt $8M in dispute settlement

Dive Brief:

The Washington State Convention Center will pay Skanska-Hunt $7.8 million after terminating the joint venture’s contract on the $1.4 billion convention renovation, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported after requesting the documents through the state's Public Records Act.
The WSCC will reimburse Skanska-Hunt $3.4 million for work in place, $1.7 million to pay subcontractors, and the balance will cover legal fees, demobilization and other expenses, according to the legal records.
Skanska-Hunt sued the WSCC after being fired in order to prevent the WSCC from hiring another construction manager and won an injunction against the convention center authority. Soon after, the parties announced they had settled but did not make the terms public.

Dive Insight:

Although WSCC manager Pine Street Group originally said that Skanska-Hunt was simply not the right contractor for the project, court records later revealed that PSG and convention center officials were unsure of the joint venture's ability to cut project costs and save money. Skanska-Hunt has maintained that they received no complaints while working on the project.

Skanska-Hunt's original proposal came in at $21.2 million, $9.5 million less than those of its two closest competitors — the joint ventures of Mortenson-PCL, and Clark Construction-Lease Crutcher Lewis. At the time of the settlement, Matt Griffin of PSG said that he wasn't sure if the new contract would be awarded to one of those two or if he would put the project out to bid again. This was a critical part of the suit, as a judge prevented the WSCC from replacing Skanska-Hunt with a contractor in the same class of construction manager; however, the terms of the settlement allow the WSCC to utilize that option if it chooses to do so.

The WSCC project will see the convention center double in order to accommodate more conventions and special events. Convention center officials said that it has needed to turn down approximately 300 events because of limited space and that this has cost the center more than $1.6 billion. Despite the contractor dispute, officials have said construction on the project is expected to still begin in 2017 and be completed in 2020.