Myrtle Beach’s Doug Shaw stadium bid awarded as scope of work shrinks

Myrtle Beach has awarded the renovation of Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium to Charleston-based builder Brantley Construction Co. after a funding setback in December forced the city to narrow the size of its project.

Brantley was the lowest bidder at $5,417,000, though the project is budgeted at $4.5 million. Bids for some city projects have been consistently outpacing budgets. Assistant City Manager Ron Andrews said many times, the lowest bid is around 15 percent over the city’s budget.

“We are higher, but that’s in line with what we found on other bids,” Andrews said. “We’re moving ahead.”

Under the accepted bid, Doug Shaw will be refurbished for 20 percent over its budget. Andrews said city staff are working to find alternative funds to fill the gap.

Now, the stadium’s home-side bleachers will be improved, its press box tower demolished and rebuilt, and a set of sprinting lanes on the home sided added. Renovations also will change the entrance to allow the school to place a metal detector at the entry gate, Andrews said.

An auxiliary building with bathrooms, a room for officials and a room for the home team is one of the biggest pieces of work, Andrews said.

Myrtle Beach has recently had to curtail several smaller projects as a dearth of builders were interested in minor work, leading to low competition and high offers.

Christina McAlhaney, an estimator for Brantley, said her company has found that budgets for public projects are consistently under what her firm bids. Brantley has done work across the Carolinas, she said, but this will be their first project in the Myrtle Beach area.

“Especially in Charleston, we are finding that more than we’ve ever found it before,” McAlhaney said. “The costs are just increasing faster than the owners are able to keep up with them.”

A different financial pressure affected the Doug Shaw work, though. After the city requested $2 million for the work in September, Horry County’s School Board denied the project any funding in December.

Work was pared down after that refusal, and an expansion of visitor-side bleachers and improved bathrooms on that side were cut from the base bid, Andrews said. The total amount budgeted by the city did not change, however.

According to the city’s bidding documents, work on the stadium must be completed by Sept. 1, or Brantley would incur a penalty of $1000 a day.

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach’s Doug Shaw stadium bid awarded as scope of work shrinks."