Arena luxury suites aren't quite so sweet

Blaming what he claims is an inflated bid from general contractor Bondfield Construction Co., the chair of Sault Ste. Marie's Sports and Entertainment Centre Steering Committee says Phases II and III of the proposed luxury suites won't be built in the new arena.

At least, not until the Concord, Ontario contractor is out of the picture, James Ciacco told a meeting of City Council last night.

Only the 13 Phase I luxury suites will be built now, Caicco said, even though the 11-suite Phase II also sold out last summer.

Because Bondfield's price to build the additional suites was considerably higher than the committee was expecting, committee members recommended that Council not proceed with construction of Phases II and III at this time, said Caicco.

All but Ward 6 Councillor Frank Manzo voted to accept the committee's recommendation not to go ahead with the additional suites.

Deposits paid on the extra box suites have been returned to the purchasers, and those names have been put on a waiting list.

"We believed the price for this part of the project would come in around $1.1 million. But instead it came back at $1.6 million," said Caicco.

He said that price was too high to justify building the Phase II and III suites because it would take too long for pay for them.

"The only way we were going to do this is if there was a strong business case for it," said Caicco. "At that price, it just didn't work."

Caicco said that the committee could not open the project for bids to other companies until the building is up and Bondfield has left the project, because there couldn't be two general contractors working on the project at the same time.

The committee hopes that opening the project for new bids once the building is done will make for a more competitive tender process and lower the price.

Many of the Sarnia Arena's luxury suites were added after the building was erected, Caicco said.