Now that football season is over, construction has resumed at Vero Beach High School’s storied Citrus Bowl stadium.
Renovation of the aging facility had been planned for 2018, but the school district moved the project up after an independent local engineer, Bill Stoddard, issued a report in October 2015 stating the concrete bleachers on the 3,000-seat home side were unsafe because of failing support beams.
The first phase of reconstruction, done last winter and spring to avoid disrupting football season, cost about $2 million. It included ripping out the old concrete seating and installing new aluminum seating. Winding low-angled aluminum ramps were installed at each end of the bleachers to make them handicap accessible and the press box was rebuilt.
The second phase of the project includes tearing down and then replacing the men’s and women’s bathrooms, the away and home locker room buildings, the ticket booths and the concrete apron under the stands. The walk-in entrance at the corner of 17th Street and 16th Avenue will be replaced by two walk-in entrances on 17th Street.
A $300,000 elevator will be installed to provide handicap accessibility to the press box – an ADA requirement Superintendent Mark Rendell said the district tried to get waived, but couldn’t. The more-than-50-percent renovation of the 60-year-old facility triggered several ADA-compliance upgrades.
Proctor Construction was awarded the contract for the second phase of construction in October and the company was scheduled to start a week-long demolition process this week, Project Development Director Michael McCabe said. Proctor hired subcontractors last month while also disconnecting water, sewer and electric utilities to the site and setting up temporary electric service.
After demolition, the water and sewer pipes will be dug up and replaced with larger diameter pipes, since both the men’s and women’s bathrooms will go from five to 40 toilets or urinals, the increase dictated by attendance numbers. All the replacement buildings will have bigger footprints than the former buildings. The enlarged replacement buildings will be concrete-block construction.
Proctor is doing the work under the auspices of a “Construction Manager at Risk” contract finalized in December that sets the “guaranteed maximum price” for second-phase construction work at just under $3.4 million. That means Proctor is “at risk” for any project cost overruns, but since it acts as both vendor and builder, handling all subcontractor bids and materials purchases, it has tight control of expenses.
Architect, engineering and testing fees will cost another $275,000, bringing the second-phase project total up to $3.675 million.
The district issued a “Certificate of Participation” for $13.5 million last March to finance what was then estimated as a $5.5 million Citrus Bowl renovation and an $8 million Beachland Elementary two-story classroom and cafeteria/auditorium project. The district put up school property as collateral for the loan, which is essentially a lease-buy-back form of financing.
Renovation costs for the stadium are steep, but football at the Citrus Bowl provides significant revenue to the district. “The football gate receipts pay for all other athletic activities and the district needs it functional by next football season,” Rendell said.