When the city of Mesa releases a “request for qualifications” notice in coming weeks, we’ll see a feeding frenzy as architectural and construction firms jockey for position — and we hear the process is expected to be wide open.
Discussions of the new facility were fast and frequent at the Winter Meetings, as lots of notes were being compared, as well as speculation as to whether anyone had an inside edge. (Probably not: one architect told us the process to date was “like herding cats.”)
Mesa officials they’ll give preference to local firms with local addresses, but they also need to keep in mind the bottom line when it comes to low bids. In recent years HKS (Camelback Ranch-Glendale and Salt River Flats) and Populous (Goodyear Ballpark) have designed major facilities in the Phoenix area, working with the likes of Barton Malow and Mortenson. There’s plenty of expertise with firms doing business in the Valley of the Sun, so the selection process should be intereting, to say the least.
RELATED STORIES: New Cubs spring facility approved by Mesa voters; Wooing voters, Mesa and Cubs release ballpark renderings; Riverside Park emerges as choice for Cubs spring-training facilities; Study evaluates potential Cubs spring-training sites ; Five sites emerge as home for new Cubs facility; Cubs to Naples: We prefer to stay in Arizona, thank you; Florida group to Cubs: Tell us if we’re really in the running to land spring training; Naples: We think we still have shot at landing Cubs spring training; Cubs, Mesa working on new spring-ballpark agreement; Mesa: We’ll finance Cubs ballpark on our own; State funding for Cubs spring facility “dead”; Florida explores new money for luring Cactus League teams; Selig pushes Cubs aside, will directly negotiate funding of new spring venue; Legislators: Yup, we want Cactus League ticket tax; Cubs: We’re not wedded to idea of Cactus League ticket tax; Cactus League teams, Selig oppose Cubs spring-training funding; Mesa to ask for state aid to keep Cubs; Cubs seriously looking at Naples spring-training bid; Naples: We’re serious about landing the Cubs; Ricketts to visit Mesa next week to tour potential spring-training sites; Lawmaker: Florida should up spending to lure spring camps for Cubs, Brewers; Cubs’ spring-training future doesn’t lie in HoHoKam Park; Mesa delegation to pitch Cubs on spring-training facilities
Share your news with the baseball community. Send it to us at editors@augustpublications.com.
Subscribers to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter see features before they’re posted to the site. You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.
Join Ballpark Digest on Facebook and on Twitter!