Rising costs of Tulsa's BOk Center

A round of high bids threatens the high expectations for Tulsa's new arena - the BOK Center. <BR><BR>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the bids for all this construction that's happened so

Monday, April 24th 2006, 10:30 am

By: News On 6

A round of high bids threatens the high expectations for Tulsa's new arena - the BOK Center.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the bids for all this construction that's happened so far - for excavation, foundation walls and some concrete - came in on target. The bids for the next phase of the job came in way over expectations.

The problem came to Mayor Kathy Taylor's attention the day after she was elected. In a brief meeting with the BOK Centerâ€™s project manager, he said there were problems with some of the bids for major pieces of the BOK Center.

The low bid for mechanical and plumbing was $10-million over the estimate, for the concrete, $4-million, for steel $5.2-million and for the drywall $3.7 million - these and the other items were bid at $32 million dollars over what was estimated.

Mayor Taylor wants an explanation and list of options from Tulsa Vision Builders by the end of the week. Critics of the arena plan said all along it was unrealistically low priced, but there was no proof until the bids came in.

Some of the possible causes for the higher than expected bids include the higher cost of fuel blamed on high crude prices, the higher cost of raw materials because of the hurricanes and higher wages for labor because of a shortage of skilled workers.

Some of the possible solutions include breaking up the projects to to rebid it in smaller pieces, making the arena a less "iconic" structure by using more standard materials, and adding money to the arena project by rolling in the unexpected revenue or savings on other projects.

As much as a year ago, former mayor Bill LaFortune hinted the arena may soak up any extra dollars leftover in the Vision package. "There was a reserve put aside, that was a significant amount of money, many millions of dollars, we hope to see that released by the county in the near future."

It's too late to downsize the arena - but not too late to make it significantly more common looking using less expensive materials.

The underestimates weren't limited to the exotic skin of the building - it's just as far off for everyday drywall and concrete. The ultimate decision on what happens is up the mayor, who is out of town.