The University of Memphis's $53 million Centennial Place is the lastest addition to the school master plan. It has 24 six-bedroom apartments, 300 single and doubleoccupancy rooms that are expected to house about 800 students. Each room is fully furnished and has two shared bathrooms and a kitchen, furnished with basic appliances.
The Tennessee Board of Regents is withholding the final payment to the contractors who built the University of Memphis’ newest student residence hall — an amount that could be up to $2 million.
The contractor may also be charged $1,000 for each day the project was late. Centennial Place, the $53-million dorm completed last week, was more than six months behind schedule, according to U of M and TBR officials.
Rentenbach Constructors Incorporated, the Knoxville based company that builds many of the TBR’s facilities, was informed months ago that they were behind schedule, said Dick Tracy, TBR’s executive director of faculties development.
“A lot of things happened,†Tracy said. “Just in the contractors scheduling. He had issues with some of the subcontractors, that’s what really got them behind. We started notifying him when we felt like he was going to be behind schedule... they are not disputing they were behind.â€
Bad weather played a role in the delay, Tracy said. But Rentenbach exceeded the number of inclement weather days allowed in its contract with TBR. While Centennial Place was ready for students to move into Tuesday, the building is not finished.
“In their contract, they are penalized $1,000 a day for every day they are late from the original completion date, which was sometime in May,â€Â Tony Poteet assistant vice president campus planning and design at the U of M.
There are parts of the new dorm that are useable but have not been finalized. For example, there may be a wall that is not yet painted or wood is still scuffed that needs to be finished.
“He’s got a lot of work still to do… mostly exterior stuff.†Tracy said.
There are no plans for a to sue Rentenbach, Tracy said.
“I know they’ve spent a lot of their own money to finish the job without adding additional charges to us,†he said. “The contractor has never questioned that he is behind schedule.â€
Along with holding back the final payment, TBR is also calculating how much money they would have earned had the new dorm been open on time. Rentenbach could be charged this amount, which is called “liquidated damages.â€
“We’ve been assessing them at the daily rate since July of 2015,†Tracy said. Construction is not an exact science, said Poteet assistant vice president campus planning and design at the U of M.
“Our contractor had a lot of difficulty getting the piers in the ground and getting the concrete frame completed,†he said. “They may have underestimated what their subcontractors performance could be.â€
While the Centennial Place was right on budget, the contractor agreed to pay for late fees in the event the project was late, Poteet said.
“In their contract, they are penalized $1,000 a day for every day they are late from the original completion date, which was sometime in May,†he said.
The contract is held between the Tennessee Board
