Benton County fires $10M event center designer. What it means for updating the fairgrounds
Benton County leaders decided to part ways with the firm designing the new fairgrounds event center just four months into the contract.
The move came just days after the 2023 Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo wrapped up.
The Benton County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to cancel the contract with Portland-based El Dorado Architects. The firm had been awarded the $1.25 million design contract to plan a new 50,000-square-foot event center and parking lot redesign at the beginning of April.
The county hoped to keep the total cost of the project under $10 million.
A statement from the county said that they were “unable to find a shared vision for the future of the Fairgrounds project” and were evaluating their options.
The county said the project is still moving forward.
What happens now?
It’s unclear if they’ll put the contract back out for bid, or when. The timeline of the contract was tight, requiring design to be completed by next February and construction to begin by April.
If the project was on track, it would have seen the firm reaching the completion of the 30% design phase at the end of July and begin the next phase of planning, which would run through October.
The terms of the contract allow the county to use any designs that were already delivered. If the project was on track, they would have had some master planning and several renderings of the design intent in hand by now.
Fairgrounds manager Tom French told the Herald that the parking lot project is being viewed as a separate project, but they don’t have a timeline on it yet.
The parking lot would have been completed by the time of the 2024 Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo, and the building construction would have taken about a year.
If the county is able to get a parking lot plan in place by April, they could still salvage that portion of the plan. Otherwise, the project is likely to be pushed off by at least another year.
That portion of the project would include a redesign of the main entrance, renovation of nearby structures, expansion of the north parking lot and installation of new barriers. It also could include a new ticket booth facility and related improvements.
The county declined to share specifics that led to the separation or provide an estimate of the costs owed to the firm.
If the master plan portion of the project was complete, it would total $87,500 in fees paid to El Dorado, according to the contract.
If the county paid out through the 30% design phase completion, that would be a cost of about $260,000 of the $1.25 million total. It is unclear how much the county will pay El Dorado to get out of the agreement.
The facility as currently proposed would be a 50,000-square-foot pre-engineered metal building. It would have partitions that could be moved to divide up the space and be heated and cooled.
French previously told the Herald that their goal was to draw more family-friendly, low-cost events.
At the same time, the event center could be used to house conferences or events that may have been interested in the Tri-Cities before, but couldn’t find the right space.
