City officials in Mobile, Ala. celebrated Feb. 14, 2025, after bids for a new Civic Center arena came in slightly beneath their budget ceiling.
"It's come in a little under budget, and that's very gratifying," Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson told Al.com after the bid opening. "It's a good way to end a Friday afternoon and it's a good way to start Mardi Gras: to tell all of our revelers that, yes, we're going to build an arena."
Last year, Stimpson announced Mobile's plan to demolish the existing civic center and replace it with a brand-new arena. The new facility is meant to be able to accommodate sporting events, Mardi Gras balls and concerts.
Three construction companies submitted bids to build the new arena; the presumed low bid came from B.L. Harbert International, a contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. The winning offer came in at $240 million and, after adding in alternates (optional extras not necessary for construction) and subtracting the offered deductions, the builder's bid totaled approximately $237 million.
According to Al.com, that figure is below the basis of $255 million, or the target budget that the city set for the new arena's construction.
But Stimpson cautioned that the final number and contract are not yet official.
The Mobile City Council has reviewed the contract for the first time, while the city and B.L. Harbert finalized the project's details. The contract is likely to be approved by the city council at its Feb. 25, 2025 meeting.
Two other building firms, Birmingham's Hoar Construction and Jesco Inc., of Mobile, also submitted bids for the arena project.
The total cost of the effort — including the building's demolition — should not exceed $300 million, noted Al.com.
Up to 56 percent of the cost to construct the new arena could be borrowed and is the first major financing project the city has undertaken since Stimpson took office in 2013.
He said that even though the construction costs are slightly below what the city budgeted, Mobile is still likely to borrow the same amount so as not to draw down more of the city's funds than necessary.
"We want to conserve as much cash as the city has … just out of prudence," Stimpson said. "If you borrow another $5 million on the bond issue, that's not that big of a deal due to the size of the bond issue. Five million dollars [in] cash may come in handy somewhere over the next number of years."
Arena Important to Mobile's Mardi Gras Celebrations
Because the construction bids are on target, Mobile can now move forward with its ambitious timeline for building the new arena.
Stimpson said the city expects to go to the bond market on March 5, 2025, while adding that construction could be authorized on March 12, 2025, just eight days after this year's Mardi Gras celebrations end.
The timeline is meant to keep costs low, Stimpson previously told Al.com, as well as to minimize the disruption to Mardi Gras. The mayor has pledged that the civic center construction will only disrupt celebrations for two years.
The new arena is currently slated to open in 2027, in time for that year's Carnival celebration.
In the meantime, the efforts to raze the old civic center began last fall and are proceeding on schedule. The demolition is anticipated to cost around $5.7 million, including the price tag for preserving the murals that previously hung in the arena lobby.
In Jan. 2025, record-breaking snowfall caused the dome roof of the old civic center to collapse. However, the cave-in did not hinder ongoing demolition, which should be completed in March 2025.
