The contractor building Fayetteville's minor league baseball stadium is asking for nearly $1 million more from the city to get the project built on time and to cover expenses blamed on Hurricane Florence. The additional costs would be on top of an already rising price tag for the stadium, now at $40.2 million.

Barton Malow Co. has told the city it is behind schedule because of the September hurricane and other rain delays, according to recent correspondence between the contractor and city leaders. The Charlotte-based contractor asked the city to extend the completion date by 30 days, which would mean the stadium wouldn't be ready for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers' April 18 home opener.

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City leaders have asked the contractor to accelerate its schedule to finish the stadium on time, even as the costs remain in dispute. The city management staff disagree with how much the weather is to blame for the delays.

In a letter to the city, obtained by a public records request, Barton Malow asked for an additional $764,432 for manpower and equipment to have the project substantially complete by the original target date of March 29. Barton Malow also has requested another $220,000 for two change orders related to Hurricane Florence preparation and remedial work.

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The additional costs could push the stadium's price tag closer to $41 million, nearly $8 million more than the city insisted the stadium would cost three years ago. As the project started to develop in 2016, the city capped the stadium's budget at $33 million and worked for months with contractors on adjusting the design and expenses. By last March, the cost had risen to $37.8 million, in part because of material prices. Today the cost is an estimated $40.2 million, not including any additional money requested by Barton Malow.

The city may have to take out more bonds to cover those increased costs.

City leaders and the Fayetteville Woodpeckers organization said last week that the stadium will be ready for the opening game April 18, which is expected to be a significant community event culminating years of planning.

“The stadium will be open on time,” said Mark Zarthar, the president of Fayetteville Woodpeckers.

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Kristoff Bauer, deputy city manager, said the city believes Barton Malow is owed some damages for lost rain days. But the city does not agree with Barton Malow's figures.

“There is a weather provision in the contract,” Bauer said. “Basically, this is a dispute over how much weather has had an impact on the project. I mean, clearly we had a hurricane, and clearly a hurricane tends to disrupt your flow, so the question is how much. And that's an issue of some debate ... . The central dispute here is again how much impact the weather has had, versus other things that are controllable.”

Last year was the wettest on record in Fayetteville. The city surpassed its yearly average rainfall total in October — 45 inches — and topped 57 inches by the end of December.

The City Council on Monday went into closed session to talk about the delays and what course of action the city should take, according to council members interviewed for this story. The council cited the attorney-client privilege exemption to the state's open meetings law to justify keeping the discussion private. Mayor Mitch Colvin said the council took City Attorney Karen McDonald's advice that the meeting should be private because it dealt with the construction contract.

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He said Friday that the council did not agree with Barton Malow's figures for the weather delays but wanted the city manager to ask the company to finish the project on March 29 as expected, and talk about the money later. He said the council did not have an alternative figure to Barton Malow's numbers. "We thought it was premature to get into the dollar figures," Colvin said.

Barton Malow officials could not be reached for comment last week.

The Fayetteville Observer obtained email correspondence between the company and the city, under the state's public records law. On Jan. 4, David Price, a senior vice president, wrote to City Manager Doug Hewett that the company wants the additional money to accelerate the work schedule, since it was clear that the city won't allow an extra 30 days to finish the project.

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“Upon review of the daily rain logs and project camera data, we have calculated the impact from the abnormal adverse weather and Hurricane Florence to be thirty working days of delay,” Price wrote.

Hewett responded by email Wednesday, asking that Barton Malow finish the project by March 29. Hewett's letter indicates that the city is willing to consider paying some extra money.

“While the city does not agree that the impact from abnormal adverse weather from Hurricane Florence amounts to 30 working days, the city does agree to the process outlined in your letter related to the review of proposed acceleration costs,” Hewett writes. “The city will meet at least every two weeks with Barton Malow to identify ‘fair and reasonable’ costs related to schedule recovery to be included in subsequent pay applications for payment.”

Hewett adds that the city expects “that this letter removes any impediment to Barton Malow taking any and all actions necessary to complete this project by March 29.”

Bauer, the assistant city manager, said Friday that Barton Malow have assured the city they will finish the project on time.

The initial $33 million estimate for building the stadium was “based on political interest,” Bauer said. He said there were many reasons why the costs have risen, including increases in concrete prices that weren't factored into the original estimate.

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“At the end of that process, after everything was bid, all of the bids were higher than budgeted,” Bauer said.

The most recent $2.3 million change order, which brought the stadium's total cost up to $40.2 million, occurred when the Astros wanted to add amenities such as seats by the scoreboard, better lighting and equipment for concessions. The baseball team ended up agreeing to pay about $1 million, and the city will pay about $1.3 million, Bauer said.

Bauer said he does not anticipate that the extra costs will require a property tax increase. Bauer said revenues to pay off the bonds are coming from sources such as ticket sales, renting out the stadium, and tax district in downtown where any revenue from rising property values will go toward the stadium debt.

“We're seeing it happen faster and at a higher value that we expected,” he said.

The city took out limited-obligation bonds to fund the stadium’s construction. Cumberland County is pitching in as well, contributing revenue from downtown property taxes.

Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at jhenderson@fayoberver.com or 910-486-3596.