Multi-Purpose Arena to Begin Construction in February

GRANTS, NM – The City of Grants held a special city council meeting on January 11. The meeting had one discussion/action item on the agenda which was approval of recommendation of award for construction for City of Grants multi-purpose arena. The city approved a bid from Cash Properties in the amount of $6,477,680.82; construction is expected to begin in February.

Special Projects Coordinator Shannon DeVine came forward to give information regarding the multi-purpose arena and to give her recommendation on the award the council should approve. According to DeVine the city has the full design of the multi-purpose arena complete and were ready to approve a construction company, so they went out to bid in August of 2023. The city received one bid, and at the time the city did not have enough funding to award the bid, so they went out to apply for more funding.

The city was able to receive more funding and went back out to bid in November 2023. This time, the city received two bids for the project. The first bid was from Cash Properties in the amount of $6,477,680.82 excluding NMGRT. The second bid was from Smith Engineering Company in the amount of $7,376,569.20 excluding NMGRT. Included in the phase is construction of the structure, electrical improvements, grandstands, ADA-compliant roadway and parking, audio, and utilities. DeVine recommended that the city award Cash Properties the bid in the amount of $6,477,680.82.

Councilor Fred Rodarte asked DeVine when they could expect construction to begin after they award the bid. DeVine responded by saying that the city will need to get all the bid documents together first, give a 30-day notice to proceed, and then construction can begin. She told the councilors construction is expected to start in February.

Councilor Beverly Michael asked DeVine which company made the original bid when the city first began the bid proposal process. DeVine said that the one lone bidder was Cash Properties. At the time, Cash Properties originally put in a bid in the amount of $7,675,401.72. Upon hearing this, Michael said she wants to make sure Cash Properties will be able to complete the construction with the now decreased bid, won’t request additional funding later down the line for this project. DeVine said that the city has a contingency plan in place and they do have leftover funding after they complete their work construction management at the next city council meeting to fall back on if there are any issues.

The amount approved by the city council was $7,675,401.72 with the caveat that this approval excludes NMGRT, or gross receipts tax. Michael asked DeVine to explain what “excluding” and “including” gross receipts tax means when it comes to bids coming in. DeVine explained, “So, when we award [the bid] like this excluding NMGRT, basically we’re not including the taxes because there could be a tax rate change, whether it goes up or down. So, we want to exclude GRT so it’s kind of known there is GRT that has to be associated with it as we do get the invoices… It means that this one doesn’t include the GRT, but we do have to include it when we do the [purchase order] and the invoicing because we do get charged the tax, we’re just letting it be known that this quote does not include the GRT.” With the current tax rate, the quote would come out to $6,987,798.18 when the current NMGRT rate is included.

Councilor George Garcia asked DeVine to clarify if Smith Co. Construction and Smith Engineering were two different entities. DeVine answered that Smith Engineering and Smith Co. Construction are two separate companies.

Councilor Zach Gutierrez said, “I’m just excited that we are getting this going, it’s been a long time coming.”

Mayor Erik Garcia then spoke about the project, “This is one of those projects that got started in 2020 and it’s gone through a lot of hands since then. There’s a lot of people who were involved… Laura Jaramillo, she was a past city manager that was around Mayor Modey Hicks and his council. Donald Jaramillo, Shannon DeVine, Smith Engineering, Grants Rodeo Association, myself and the council in place now. One of the biggest people that we need to say thank you to is Mr. Harry Garcia. The project started with $2.5 million… It’s good though this is one of the improvements that the City of Grants has never had… This is going to be one of those attractions where we’re going to start to create that tourism GRT coming to Grants, New Mexico. We’re going to start to thrive a little bit, I believe.”

Members of the Grants Rodeo Association came forward to give their thanks and appreciation to the council. One of the members said, “It’s been a pretty amazing process, watching it just from a scratch piece of paper, dreaming about a facility like this… If it wasn’t for [Harry Garcia] helping us out it would still be on a scratch piece of paper. It’s just amazing to see all the community coming together just for this project. With all the help from the council [and all the association members] from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank you all for helping us out on this project.”

The council unanimously approved the bid for the multi-purpose arena to Cash Properties in the amount of $6,477,680.82 excluding NMGRT. DeVine ended off by saying, “Thank you very much, and we do also want to thank the COG for helping with the grant writing and everything to help get this funding as well. Talking with Harry Garcia and working with the state I mean all the way around.”

All City of Grants meetings are livestreamed and available to watch live or replayed on the City of Grants Facebook page and the City of Grants NM YouTube.