Builders picked to lead Arkansas Arts Center's $70M revamp

Groundbreaking set for October ’19

This rendering released Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, shows the planned renovations to the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.
This rendering released Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, shows the planned renovations to the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.

Three firms, including two from Arkansas, will oversee construction of the revamped Arkansas Arts Center, officials announced Monday.

Nabholz Construction, Pepper Construction and Doyne Construction Co. will work as a "tri-venture" to manage the $70 million makeover, with groundbreaking scheduled for October 2019, the center's interim executive director, Laine Harber, said during a board of trustees meeting.

The remodeled museum is scheduled to open in early 2022.

The announcement rounds out the top-line list of project manager, architects and construction managers who will work on the public-private overhaul. The downtown Little Rock museum has also secured six specialty consultants whose advice will cover a variety of topics, such as rock-and-soil analysis, food service and traffic management.

Harber called the three-firm team the "logical" choice for construction management and said each candidate was required to provide information on how it would include minority-owned businesses as partners.

The Arkansas Arts Center renovation project has been years in the making. The trustees nearly two years ago selected Chicago-based Studio Gang to be the lead architectural firm. Polk Stanley Wilcox, of Little Rock, is an associate architect.

The construction firms announced Monday have a history of work on arts museums and of partnering either with each other or with Studio Gang.

Nabholz Construction, based in Arkansas, partnered with Linbeck Group of Fort Worth to build the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. It also renovated The Griffin Building in El Dorado for that city's Murphy Arts District.

Pepper Construction, based in Chicago, was on the team that built a $160 million expansion of the St. Louis Art Museum, was the construction manager for the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and has worked on renovations at the Art Institute of Chicago. The firm previously worked with Studio Gang on the Lincoln Park Zoo Nature Boardwalk in Chicago.

Doyne Construction Co. of North Little Rock previously partnered with Nabholz on the Windgate Center of Art and Design at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Contract details are still being worked out. A letter of agreement dated Sept. 6 sets a "stipend for pre-construction services" at $180,000. Those services do not include the procurement or construction phases.

Merritt Dyke, president of the Arts Center's board of trustees, said after Monday's meeting that the selection of the construction firms was finalized after former Executive Director Todd Herman accepted a new job running an arts museum in North Carolina.

The national firm Ascent was previously selected as project manager. Ascent in that role represents the Arts Center in discussion with architects and other contractors.

Sara Urizar, program director at Ascent, said the costs for specialty consultants were already included in the budget and "are tracking well" with the initial projected costs.

The six specialty firms already on board are:

• Anderson Engineering Consultants of Little Rock will be responsible for geotechnical engineering, providing the rock-and-soil analysis for where the expansion will be built. Its agreement with the Arts Center is for $18,800.

• Terracon Consultants of Bryant will oversee environmental engineering, tasked with cataloging hazardous materials.

• CTEH, or the Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health, of North Little Rock is the "industrial hygienist." The firm will be responsible for evaluating arts school activities involving chemicals, paints, powders and elevated temperatures. It will also design the ventilation system for the arts school studios.

• Peters & Associates Engineers of Little Rock is the traffic consultant. The firm's agreement with the Arts Center is for $15,500.

• Manask & Associates of Monrovia, Calif., will help shape the museum's plans for food service and retail sales.

• Layne Consultants International of Denver is the security consultant.

A request for contracts or letters of agreement with the consultants only turned up the Anderson and Peters & Associates agreements. The Arts Center is still finalizing details with the other four selected firms, said Angel Galloway, director of marketing and communications.

All of the consultants were selected after requests for qualifications were issued by the city of Little Rock, Urizar said.

Officials are still looking for three more consultants that specialize in owner testing services, building commissioning and signage.

Owner testing services verify that materials such as mortar, concrete and steel are composed of the proper material. The commissioning agent will independently test whether mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection systems have been properly installed.

City officials expect to issue public bonds by the end of November, Dyke said. Little Rock voters in February 2016 approved the sale of up to $37.5 million in bonds to benefit the Arkansas Arts Center and MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, both in MacArthur Park.

A 2 percentage-point increase to the city's hotel tax will pay down the debt. Most of the proceeds will go to the Arts Center. Harber said he hopes the sale will produce at least $30 million for the expansion project.

A behind-the-scenes fundraising effort to secure tens of millions of dollars in private money to supplement the public funds is ongoing.

Officials have not disclosed their fundraising goal but said it needs to surpass $70 million so that it covers "soft" costs such as architectural fees and so it can grow the museum's endowment to cover increased annual operating expenses.

Studio Gang and the Arts Center in February unveiled a high-level conceptual design for the expansion and renovation project. A more detailed design is underway.

NW News on 09/18/2018

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