Argenta Plaza’s price tag rises, gets council OK

North Little Rock City Council members approved increases in the cost of the planned Argenta Plaza downtown and for its architectural fees without dissent Monday evening, pushing the total project cost to $5.365 million.

The increased cost is because of construction bids coming in higher than expected, the larger footprint for the plaza space and the previously approved architect’s fee being based on 15 percent of the plaza’s construction cost.

The separate resolutions both passed 8-0.

The construction cost for the plaza at Fifth and Main streets grew from an estimated $4 million to $4,665,500. The fee for Taggart Architects, a North Little Rock firm that will oversee other involved companies, increased from a previously approved $400,000 maximum to $699,825, or by an additional $299,825.

Mayor Joe Smith told the council that bids came in about $800,000 over expectations. City officials then worked with those contractors to decrease those costs by about $200,000, he said.

“Everything else I would have had to take out would have hurt the plaza,” Smith said, adding that he wanted to keep the promised “wow factor” in the plaza’s design. Amenities are to include a free-standing waterfall, jetted fountains and oxbow-shaped berms.

“We would have liked for it to come under [estimates],” Smith said of the increased price tag. “We just have to deal with it.”

Smith said contractors on other projects have told him that construction costs are rising about 1 percent per month and a number of other projects in central Arkansas have crowded the field. He said some potential bidders didn’t submit a proposal because they said they were previously committed to other projects.

The cost is also higher because the footprint is “about 25 percent larger than the original plaza” design, Smith said. Once the planned six-story First Orion building came about, to be directly behind the plaza, Smith said he agreed to take the plaza up to the front of that office building, increasing the plaza’s size.

Smith also said that the project’s budget doesn’t include a contingency fee to cover any future cost increases that may arise, usually standard in construction projects of this size.

“We have to be very frugal in how we put this together,” Smith said. “These bids are firm. This is our budget and we’ll stick to it. And if we have a change order we’ll tell everybody this is what we have to do about it.”

The architectural fee became an issue last week because of confusion among some council members over

whether the fee was supposed to be part of the projected $4 million cost. The $4 million figure has previously been listed in different plaza-related legislation as the “total project cost,” which was assumed by some to have included the architect’s fee as well.

Smith said during the meeting that he had talked with each council member before Monday’s meeting about the cost increases.

“The mayor did his math and had answers to my questions,” council member Charlie Hight, who said last week he thought the $4 million cost was all-inclusive, stated after the meeting. “The 15 percent amount is because there are several architectural firms included. If it was just a single firm, they would be charging less. And we’d already approved that [in April 2017].”

Council member Maurice Taylor, who had also questioned the total project cost last week, said after the meeting that he still “didn’t like it,”

referring to the architect’s fee rising along with the construction costs.

“We should have caught it on the front end,” Taylor said. “Moving forward, I’m going to be looking for it.”

Taylor said he also didn’t agree with leaving out a contingency amount in the plaza’s construction budget.

“What I don’t like is it’s going to go over,” Taylor said. “What project of this magnitude has there not been overages? This is in the oldest part of the city. You always find something.”