The bond company behind Georgia’s delay-beset convention development, the Newnan Center, is now in the process of selecting a new contractor for the job and has tentatively set an opening date for December of this year.
Newnan Convention Center Authority turned to the Ohio Casualty bonding company, which provided the surety bond for the original contractor, after problems started befalling the project at the beginning of this year. The original contractor started falling behind on paying subcontractors working on the multi-million dollar center, which saw work grind to a halt.
The originally contractor was officially ordered off the project by the authority on the ground that it had essentially quit the job.
Ohio Casualty now has an engineering consulting firm examining the bids put forward by potential replacement contractors and is hoping that an announcement will be made about an appointment imminently.
“Once that happens, we hope to get the new contractor under contract with us... get them bonded and set a start date,” said Parks Avery, the chairman of the convention center authority. “We are hoping to get a start date in mid to late June.”
He added that the final settlement agreements between the authority and the surety company to ensure that the taxpayers of Newnan do not face any larger bill due to the delay in the construction work on the project. The original contract for the project had been for a fixed cost of $4.26 million, but the current total estimated cost has risen to $5.15 million, with an additional $300,000 contingency.