Wichita City Council opts for competitive bid for Stryker Sports Complex upgrades

The Wichita City Council initiated a competitive bid for the design of $1 million worth of improvements at Stryker Sports Complex the day after an Eagle reporter questioned why staff recommended forgoing the process.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to expedite a competitive bid on the design of expanded locker room and press box facilities, as well as the addition of showers at the complex, which is privately run but owned by the city.

Local firm MKEC Engineering designed all $22 million worth of upgrades to the fields and stadium three years ago, and the proposal from city staff called for a supplemental design agreement with MKEC to speed up the construction process.

In June, the council approved reallocating $1 million of STAR bond funds for additional improvements at Stryker with an eye towards luring national and collegiate tournaments.

“The focus of the original design and budget was to accommodate youth sports,” city engineer Gary Janzen told council members. “The existing locker rooms and press box serve them well. However, many collegiate and national events that Stryker is now seeking to attract require amenities such as showers and expanded locker rooms.”

Janzen said Stryker management has unsuccessfully placed bids for both Major League Soccer events and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) soccer championships. He said NAIA executives told management that upgraded facilities “would be needed to have a chance at securing that event in the future.”

To date, MKEC has received $2,402,500 in design fees for the Stryker project. They were also heavily involved in the construction process for the $22 million upgrades. The supplemental design agreement called for the city to pay the firm an additional $99,545.

In an email response to The Eagle’s questions Monday, city strategic communications director Jim Jonas said MKEC would be “best suited to ensure the improvements function properly with the existing facilities and can complete the design work in the shortest time frame.”

“That allows us to get to construction sooner and limit the potential number of higher-profile tournaments lost,” Jonas wrote.

Council member Becky Tuttle, whose district includes the Stryker facility, asked Janzen if the city could feasibly open up the design process to a competitive bid instead of automatically awarding it to MKEC.

“If we do that, just so you know, I would estimate it’s probably going to add two months to the completion time, and that’s probably at a minimum,” Janzen responded.

He said giving MKEC the green light would ensure that construction could be done by the end of March 2022.

“Being able to move forward with this supplemental design agreement helps us get to construction sooner, which allows us to hopefully meet the spring schedule and gives the operator the chance to start looking at those events that we talked about,” Janzen said.

He also argued that MKEC’s “intimate knowledge” of the facility’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems would give them the edge over other engineering firms.

“It’s not practical to really think that another designer could come in here and do things really any different or any quicker,” he said.

But Tuttle was concerned about the precedent the council would set by forgoing a formal request for proposal (RFP) process.

“I think that one of the things that this council has really strived to do is be transparent and to make sure that we are being consistent in that, and so I just have a concern that not opening it up and seeing if there were other entities within our community that might want to submit an RFP, could be problematic,” Tuttle said.

She motioned to direct staff to follow an expedited RFP process, and her motion was supported by all seven council members.

The city staff recommendation called for a competitive bidding process to award a construction contract for the $1 million facility upgrades.

Mark Buckingham, project manager on MKEC’s past Stryker work, did not return a call Tuesday afternoon.

Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Eagle

This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 2:30 PM.