Costs rise for Beale Street Landing project on Memphis riverfront

Design costs for the Beale Street Landing project shot up by more than a half million dollars as architects modified plans to deal with unstable soil along the Mississippi River, records show.

The Riverfront Development Corp., the nonprofit firm under contract with Memphis to oversee parks along the Mississippi, so far has paid $4.42 million in architectural fees for the project, according to figures provided by RDC.

That's an increase of almost $570,000 from the $3.85 million RDC said it had spent on design as of July 31, 2010, in a report filed with City Council last year.

And design costs could increase by at least another $100,000 as work continues, said RDC president Benny Lendermon.

Nonetheless, Lendermon said, the RDC will not be asking City Council for additional funding for the landing, relying instead on other revenues it already has.

"There's no more (city) money going into this project," he said.

Including the $38.1 million committed for construction, the rising architecture expenditures have increased the total cost of the project to at least $42.52 million -- more than twice the original estimate of $20 million of nearly a decade ago.

RDC has paid the $4.42 million in fees to the architect of record, Bounds and Gillespie Architects, a Memphis firm. Bounds and Gillespie, in turn, has hired several consultants that it pays from the RDC funds it received.

Located between Tom Lee Park and the historic cobblestones, the landing will feature a riverboat dock, a building for a restaurant and other operations and a terraced park leading to the river.

The project has been paid for by funds from the city's capital budget as well as state and federal grants. But it has been plagued by cost overruns, many of them attributed to increases in steel and contracting prices that occurred as the project was delayed by budget issues.

Just last year, the council agreed to ante up almost $9.75 million more to cover shortfalls.

The council would be hesitant to provide any more funds for the landing, member Shea Flinn said.

"Any request for additional money would come under very, very serious scrutiny," he said.

The dock and building are nearing completion, but the park phase, with intricately designed islands connected by walkways, has been undergoing redesign because of soil problems that weren't revealed by initial borings before work began.

In late 2008, during an early phase of construction, a retaining wall held back by sheet piling "slid" after soil shifted, Lendermon said.

"It wasn't catastrophic or anything, but it was something everyone knew shouldn't have occurred," he said.

Subsequent borings revealed more serious problems, which would require millions of dollars worth of extra steel reinforcements to prevent the concrete walkways and islands from settling in the mucky soil.

To eliminate the need for the extra steel, architects modified the design to remove some of the concrete walkways and slightly reduce the size of the guitar-pick-shaped islands. The latest design drawings are expected to be finished this week.

-- Tom Charlier: (901) 529-2572

See the original post:
Costs rise for Beale Street Landing project on Memphis riverfront