Dive Brief:

• A King County, WA, court judge decided to bar the Washington State Convention Center from hiring a replacement general contractor/construction manager for its $1.4 billion expansion project but denied Skanska-Hunt's efforts to be reinstated, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
• The court gave Skanska-Hunt exclusive rights to the GC/CM structure that the WSCC prefers and ruled that if the WSCC wants to proceed with a different contractor for the project, it must use the traditional design-bid-build delivery method, according to the Capitol Hill Times.
• The WSCC’s project management company Pine Street Group terminated Skanska-Hunt last month, stating at the time that the joint venture wasn’t a "good fit" for the project after working together for six months. Skanska-Hunt filed suit soon after to block the WSCC from hiring another contractor.

Dive Insight:

"By electing … to enter into a contract with Skanska-Hunt and to accept what are essentially GC/CM preconstruction services from Skanska-Hunt, Skanska-Hunt’s right to be the firm with whom WSCC negotiated for a MACC (maximum allowable construction cost) contract for this project became a vested right," Superior Court Judge Beth M. Andrus wrote in her decision. "As a result, WSCC has no statutory right to declare a 'do over,' to seek a new GC/CM."

According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, Skanska-Hunt argued in the suit that it believed it was fired because the WSCC wanted a less costly GC/CM. However, the WSCC said that it feared Skanska-Hunt wasn’t "creative enough" to successfully negotiate timesaving and cost-reduction strategies. The GC/CM procurement method involves choosing a contractor based on several qualifications, not just the one offering the lowest bid.

Superior Court Judge Beth M. Andrus also found, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce, that there were too many disputed facts to settle in the hearing, so she ordered a trial to start in no more than 120 days. Skanska-Hunt must pay an injunction bond of $1 million, even though the WSCC requested the bond be set at $38.4 million.

"We are obviously very pleased with this decision, and citizens of Washington State should be as well," Skanska-Hunt said in a statement. "As we have contended from the start, and as several have testified under oath, we have done good work on this project, and we believe there were no legitimate grounds for our termination."

A statement from Pine Street Group said the developer was pleased the judge ruled to allow the termination of Skanska-Hunt, but that it needs to further study the decision before choosing what action to take next. 

Skanska-Hunt originally won the WSCC project over two other joint ventures — Mortenson-PCL and Clark Construction-Lease Crutcher Lewis. The project, when complete, will double the size of the existing facility and will increase the amount of exhibit space in the hopes of attracting trade shows and other events.