The City of St. Paul said Tuesday that it has finalized a contract with Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies US, Inc., for the design of the new $54 million Saints ballpark.
The city said that the stadium’s design-build contract will be executed in two parts. The first part of the contract, which was finalized Tuesday, includes completing the design for the ballpark. Ryan will receive $1.72 million for that work.
The second part of the contract involves stadium construction and will be finalized after design is complete, the city said. Ryan proposed a $3.48 million budget for the design and construction of the stadium; the second part of the contract deal will “formalize the final construction cost and provide for the remainder of the proposed budget,” the city said.
A Ryan spokesperson referred questions to the city; a city official was not immediately available Tuesday afternoon.
Mayor Chris Coleman said in a statement that the finalized design portion of the contract is “a huge milestone for the ballpark.”
“We are officially ready to get started on cleaning up the site and creating the final design for the ballpark,” Coleman said. “We believe that Ryan Companies can help us create a reality for this ballpark that is better than what we could have hoped for.”
Last month, St. Paul said it selected Ryan to design and build the stadium; the company was initially selected in September, but the Taxpayers League of Minnesota filed a lawsuit alleging that the city failed to obtain competitive bids. The city subsequently reopened bidding, but still ended up choosing Ryan. The city said at the time that Ryan “has extensive experience designing and managing large-scale projects.” Since the company was involved in the production of the stadium’s feasibility study at the time the project was pursuing legislative funding, Ryan “has extensive background and familiarity” with the project, the city said.
The ballpark project received $25 million in state funds last year as part of a bonding bill that Governor Mark Dayton signed in June. While the project received $2 million short of what St. Paul requested, its share was the largest portion of $47.5 million that the state distributed among nine projects.
The new ballpark will be located at Fifth Street and Broadway Street and will replace the vacant Diamond Products/Gillette building that’s now at the site, which the St. Paul Port Authority bought. The city coordinated a “land swap” deal, through which it provided the site of the Saints’ Midway Stadium in exchange for that property.
Demolition of the Diamond Products building is expected to begin this summer, and construction on the ballpark is scheduled to start this fall. The ballpark is expected to be complete by spring 2015.
Environmental grants and other loans could help close a $2 million budget gap in the project, which is expected to open in 2015, according to a report by the Pioneer Press.
The St. Paul newspaper also reported that Ryan plans to begin its stadium design from scratch, likely ditching the conceptual drawings of the stadium that have been circulating for several years. Ryan reportedly plans to work with a Lowertown ballpark advisory committee on designs and schematics through August.