Work on ag center approved
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 7, 2016 10:02 AM
Nearly $4.5 million in subcontracting work for the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center was unanimously approved this week by the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.
To date, the contract with T.A. Loving Co., the construction manager at risk for the agricultural center, totals $7,494,669 for what is expected to be a $19 million project.
T.A. Loving Co. had recommended approval of the contracts.
The board also authorized County Manager George Wood to begin the search and to hire a director for the center, who under the co-supervision of the Wayne County manager, will develop strategic plans and long-range goals for the center and overall tourism industry in Wayne County.
Also on Tuesday, the county received official confirmation of a previously announced $1.5 million grant for the project from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund.
Since the center is a construction manager at risk project, commissioners actually awarded the contract to T.A. Loving using the subcontractor's prices.
The subcontracts approved Tuesday were for concrete, $772,077; masonry, $1,498,896; structural and miscellaneous steel, $1,172,400; and plumbing, $554,000-- a total cost of $3,997,373.
Bridgepoint Civil had previously been awarded a $2,726,895 subcontract for site work.
The remaining subcontracts should be completed within the next two to three weeks at which time all of the remaining work will be awarded.
"We are at a point now where we need to begin the process of hiring the director," Wood said. "This person will be in the one in charge of overall marketing of it, booking the events, establishing recommendations for us on all of the policies to be input in place.
"If we start the process now, we will be fortunate to have somebody on board about the first week in January of 2017. That mans the building would open roughly about a year later."
Wood said that convention center directors across the state have told him they already are booking events for 2018 and 2019.
"So we really need to get this person on board," he said. "Before we can start doing bookings we have got to have all of these policies in place. What are we going to charge for each room? What are we going to charge for setups and takedowns, catering? There are just a multitude of things you have got to have a policy on.
"Then we have got to start our marketing campaign."
The salary is expected to be in the $80,000 range.
Commission Chairman Joe Daughtery asked about how the position would be funded.
"As you recall, under our agreement with the city of Goldsboro we get two percent of their five percent hotel/motel tax," Wood said. "Our estimate is that it is going to bring in about $260,000 annually.
"That started July 1 so we will get that for the full fiscal year (that ends June 30). It may be a littler higher because the bookings at our motels continue to go up month by month."
The $260,000 is included in the center's budget and will be more than enough to hire a director, he said.
"I am not recommending that you hire anybody else until we get much, much closer to opening the facility," Wood said. "But as we get close to opening the facility we will need to bring a second key person on board who will be the operations manager."
That person would be in charge of the day-to-day operation of the center, he said.
Wood said that there would be a limited number of full-time employees and that part-time help would be used as well.
Groundbreaking for the center was held July 16, and sitework is under way.
It will be located on North Wayne Memorial Drive adjacent to Wayne Community College.
The center will be home to the Cooperative Extension Service, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Wayne County Soil and Water and have classrooms and a large lobby.
The center will be 1.5 acres under roof, and its assembly hall will seat 800 in a banquet setting and more than 1,500 when set up for a speaker.
It will hold 70 booths for a trade show or similar event.
The assembly hall also can be broken into four rooms of different sizes.