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An exceptionally high bid for a significant Quinta Mazatlán expansion project forced the city to reject the bid last month and head back to the drawing board in search of cost-saving measures.
The project was anticipated to cost about $34.5 million. SpawGlass, the sole contractor to bid the project, submitted a bid of $59.846 million.
That prompted the city commission to reject the bid on April 11. City Manager Roy Rodriguez told the commission he would recommend using a construction manager at risk to “get this thing somewhere near our budget.”
Rodriguez told The Monitor that the city expected the bid to be high, although it didn’t expect it to be quite that high.
“In today’s world, it’s just not realistic to think that you can build a project — especially a complicated one like this — with an estimate that we had last year,” he said. “Too many things have changed, and we all know it, with inflation and supplies and all of this stuff that we keep talking about.”
Rodriguez said the city met with architects earlier this month and is trying to tackle the project with a combination of design-bid-build and construction manager at risk.
“CMAR works the best when you introduce that delivery system in the beginning of the project, so that you’ve got a contractor, a designer and an owner working step by step from the very beginning,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve got a cool set of plans. So we’re having to do both, we’re having to redesign some of it and then decide if we can go out and get a construction manager at risk and connect the two.”
A “cool set of plans” is an apt description for the project. It’s very cool, bordering on grandiose.
Renderings for the expansion portray an Eden-like oasis. Buildings are draped in verdant vines and surrounded by palms. People mingle in pavilions and on pathways. Flocks of birds (it’s a World Birding Center) fly overhead.
The city hopes to avoid investing more in the project, although that’s a possibility. The goal, Rodriguez said, is to cut costs and keep that “wow” factor.
“For instance, the superstructure is a very, very large part of the overall project and it’s steel,” he said. “So we’re looking at alternatives to steel, and even getting into the weeds. Like can we change the welds, so that it’s less work, a contractor can do it more efficiently, things like that. And so we’re going to be very careful about not changing it to the extent that it doesn’t look like what we’ve been selling to the community.”
The city partnered with a number of entities on the expansion project, among them the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and McAllen ISD.
Rodriguez said the city isn’t planning to change those partnerships in light of the bid.
“Our job is to complete this project with the commitments that we have,” he said.
McAllen ISD’s board discussed the project at length last year. The district opted for a $4 million commitment, and has heralded the partnership as significant.
The district said last week that the bid estimate didn’t change its stance on the project.
“We still want to do this for our students,” spokesman Mark May wrote.
Rodriguez noted that the Quinta project is hardly the only development being impacted by economic forces.
The city has been putting out an exceptionally high number of projects this year: over 100, Rodriguez said.
For some, the city is reevaluating funding sources. Others may face delays.
“In fact, we’ve rejected the bids for Anzalduas International Bridge, which is a major, major project,” he said. “And it has to do with the same thing. I mean, contractors are placing a big dollar amount in their bids to cover risk, because of the supply problems and personnel problems and so on. It’s so hard to predict how much higher you’re gonna be.”
Rodriguez described the Quinta expansion as a significant piece in the puzzle of McAllen’s quality of life and economic development puzzle.
Other pieces include airport expansion, the performing arts center and bringing events to town like the Christmas parade.
“So we’ve got a lot of pieces to the puzzle, and we feel that it’s working,” he said. “I mean, if you look at the numbers of what’s happening in McAllen, it really is amazing. Everything is in double-digit growth, even in coming out of this pandemic.”
What’s next for the Quinta project? That’s ambiguous.
Director Colleen Hook did not accept requests for an interview but said updates should be available in late May or June.
“We are working with the architects and engineers regarding next steps,” she wrote.
Rodriguez was also ambiguous.
“Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later, but we’re not going to put ourselves in a bad situation,” he said. “So we don’t have an answer yet, but we’ll get there.”
The Quinta project, Rodriguez said, is important.
“We’re committed to delivering a quality product that’s gonna make a big difference in our community,” he said. “In the lives of our children and their children.”
