Hunt Construction Group and Skanska have reportedly secured the Washington State Convention Center enlargement project set to be worth around $1.4 billion. The project is likely to begin in a couple of years’ time, once the transit station has been acquired from King County Metro, and is expected to be completed by 2020.
The Convention Center opened in 1988, however the current exhibit space no longer satisfies the requirements for the growing number of trade and other events in Seattle. The Skanska-Hunt project will add around 250,000 square feet of exhibit space, 120,000 square feet of meeting space as well as a ballroom, practically doubling the current size of the Convention Center. The transit station will remain in operation once the project is completed.
The Skanska-Hunt JV is rumored to have been taken on this early in the project in order to add expertise and value as the development gets under way—an arrangement known as general contractor/construction manager. Pine Street Group will be managing the extension project, while LMN Architects are the designers; Magnussson Klemencic Associates are reported as the structural and civil engineer on the development.
