Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Jeff German: RJC may finally be in good hands

With a $128.5 million construction contract, you would think that Clark County officials would know who's in charge of finishing the 17-story Regional Justice Center.

But you would be wrong.

Because, as readers of this space know, this is the "Project from Hell," where no one seems to be able to communicate with each other. County officials and the general contractor they hired, AF Construction, hate each other's guts, and that sour relationship has put the taxpayer-financed project months behind schedule and millions of dollars in the red.

This week a new big-time construction company emerged on the scene, giving the taxpayers hope that all of the bitterness and uncertainty might soon end. The project has been so bad for so long that any positive development like this is cause for optimism.

The contractor, Clark Construction, a Maryland-based firm with $2 billion in annual revenues and an impressive portfolio of completed projects, took the county's project managers by surprise Tuesday when, without defining its role, it sought a meeting to discuss working on the Regional Justice Center. Word of Clark's presence on the downtown job site set off rumors, including a false one reported by KLAS TV-8 that the company had replaced the much-criticized AF Construction as the general contractor.

Though it technically was wrong, Channel 8 probably wasn't too far off in its assessment.

AF Construction said it still is at the helm, but anyone with a brain knows that Clark Construction, the nation's fifth largest contractor, will be calling the shots from now on.

By Thursday afternoon, though the county still had not been given formal notice of Clark's role, it was obvious that the company was brought in by the project's bonding company, the San Francisco-based Fireman's Fund, to get this job done once and for all.

Clark's presence confirms what many have been saying for some time -- that the hometown AF Construction has been over its head.

Finally, there is a company on the project that knows what it's doing. Clark Construction's long list of accomplishments include Los Angeles City Hall, the San Francisco Civic Center, Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center and Washington's Fed Ex Field.

In the end, it may not matter who's officially in charge at the Regional Justice Center, as long as things get moving.

Just having Clark on board in any capacity is improving morale on both sides.

Brad Byington, AF Construction's project manager, said he's anxious to press ahead and is looking for Clark Construction to persuade the county to be more cooperative and stop its "bullying" tactics.

Aviation Director Randy Walker, the county's lead overseer, said he can't wait to deal with a contractor who can keep subcontractors on the job and stick to a work schedule.

It's too early to call Clark Construction the project's savior, but if it can change some attitudes and bring more professionalism to the project, the Regional Justice Center actually has a chance of being completed.

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