Two firms vie for soccer project
Oct. 21—HIGH POINT — City officials will decide between two firms vying to oversee planned renovations to Truist Point stadium to accommodate a professional soccer team.
I.L. Long Construction Co. of Winston-Salem was the second general contractor to submit a proposal for the project. It did so after the city had to make a second attempt to find a vendor for the project when Greensboro-based Samet Corp. was the only respondent to the city's first request for qualifications to provide design and construction services for the project.
A team of city officials is evaluating both proposals before recommending one for the City Council to approve.
"The goal is for staff to come to a decision and recommendation before Nov. 7 and have it on the council agenda for Nov. 7," said Assistant City Manager Eric Olmedo.
The renovations to the city-owned stadium are aimed at securing an MLS Next Pro franchise that a local ownership group plans to purchase.
The project will include removing a portion of the first base grandstand that angles sharply toward the field in order to move the playing surface 20 feet closer to the seating area.
The work also entails replacing the existing artificial turf to meet color, pattern and playability standards for both baseball and soccer, and building out unfinished space to accommodate soccer locker rooms.
The project needs to be completed without conflicting with High Point Rockers baseball games and other events at the stadium, according to the city.
The city's working estimate of the total project budget is $5.1 million.
City leaders can select a firm for the project based on qualifications, experience and other factors, and prices are then negotiated.
Both proposals included architects, engineers and other firms the respondents plan to use on the project.
The city hired Samet in 2017 to build the stadium and, more recently, to renovate a former office building into the new High Point Police Department headquarters.
Olmedo said he's not aware of any prior city business done with I.L. Long Construction, but the firm has done a lot of work on various facilities at Wake Forest University.
