Photo by Erin Nelson.
Contractors with Foshee Steel Solutions work on the entrance canopy at the new Vestavia Hills Civic Center in December 2021.
When the new Vestavia Hills Civic Center opens, it will do so about six months behind schedule.
That delay is due to labor and supply chain issues, along with a rotation of contractors at the site, Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes said.
The Civic Center is roughly 100,000 square feet and will include multi-purpose courts, the Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame, meeting and event spaces, an indoor walking track, banquet space and office spaces. Formerly the site of Gold’s Gym, it is one of the last remaining pieces of the city’s Community Spaces plan, which has brought new amenities, infrastructure and more throughout the city during the past few years.
The new timeline for the center’s opening is the end of this month.
TCU Consulting Services, which has developed the Community Spaces Plan for the city, is overseeing the project at a ground level now, working daily with the contractor to move the project along.
TCU head Ken Upchurch said during the city’s strategic planning session this past February that he blamed “leadership in the organization” for about “90%” of the delays, while also saying some of it could be blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Upchurch later told the Vestavia Voice he misspoke and those percentages were incorrect, and said he did not want to throw the contractor, Amason and Associates, under the bus.
Upchurch said there had been some turnover and leaders at the site have dealt personally with COVID-19, and the biggest challenge they’ve had is the supply chain issues.
“In spite of the issues, we’re getting there,” Upchurch said.
Amason and Associates was awarded the bid for the project in May 2020, which came in at $13.4 million, about $3 million less than the originally anticipated amount of $16.4 million. Since then, there have been increases in the scope of the job, and the total cost will be about $17.2 million, Downes said.
Robert Amason, chairman of Amason’s board, said in addition to those challenges, transitioning the former gym property into a civic center came with challenges. Amason said manufacturers are having a hard time giving accurate lead times for material delivery and with so much of the materials made overseas or otherwise reliant on shipping, it creates delays.
Other issues that have contributed to construction delays include delays in the delivery of items such as steel and fixtures and the difficulty subcontractors have had in finding enough labor, Downes said. While those items by themselves may not be all that challenging, they collectively become a major issue, he said.
The Civic Center will connect to City Hall, and city staff have already begun creating new programs, including summer camps, adult recreational sports, civic gatherings and more, Downes said. Having the bridge will create one campus for residents needing to visit City Hall, the Vestavia Hills Police Department and the Civic Center, Downes said.
Raynor Boles with TCU told the City Council on April 11 the schedule has the center opening in mid-summer.
City staff scheduling and planning events at the Civic Center have scheduled those that don’t require as much lead time, Downes said. Once the Civic Center does open, all of its amenities will be ready to go, and residents and others can schedule events there, he said.
Downes said it will be nice to have a large event space that, for example, could hold the city’s annual holiday celebration in the event of rain. Upchurch and others at the site have mentioned that the event space can host proms, wedding receptions and more.
Despite the delays, Downes said he is pleased with how the Community Spaces Plan has come along thus far, with the Civic Center being the only major delay.
“When you look at what we’ve accomplished as a city, or are in the process of accomplishing — the largest collection of capital improvement projects in the history of Vestavia Hills — when we look back on it and the only thing we can be frustrated with is a six-month delay, I think that’s pretty good, Downes said.
