Waxahachie City Council to discuss city hall renovation projected overrun Friday
The Waxahachie City Council will hold a work session at 10 a.m. Friday, July 18, at the Waxahachie Civic Center to discuss projected overruns on the city hall renovation/addition project.
The work session follows council members receiving a report from Jon Vidaurri of Vidaurri Management Group, which is providing management services for the project. (The company previously provided its services on Waxahachie’s Charles Beatty Municipal Services Building).
“We’ve had some pretty significant price increases since the beginning of the year,” said Vidaurri, whose company manages up to $400 million in construction costs each year across a variety of projects.
During his report, Vidaurri highlighted several other projects with which he is working and that have experienced double-digit cost increases from 10% to 30% during the past few months. (Read the presentation PDF below).
“I’m surprised,” Vidaurri said of the increases being seen and noting his 42 years in the business of project management. Similar price disruptions were seen in 2020 related to pandemic-related impacts, he said, noting a common thread now amongst contractors and subcontractors is their uncertainty over real and potential tariffs and how those may or may not come into play with pricing.
“We’ve seen escalation in steel, all kinds of items,” Vidaurri said. “They take the opportunity to raise their prices, and we don’t see them coming down.”
He noted also a skilled craftsman pool that can take its pick of the work available: “If you don’t want to pay what they’re asking, they’ll go on to another market. It’s horrible on the owner side (of a project).”
Still, not all of the Waxahachie overrun is attributable to potential tariffs, Vidaurri said, noting almost $1.7 million of that pertains to unforeseen site and building conditions discovered during demolition of the old structure that necessitated reworking multiple design elements for the project.
For the Waxahachie city hall renovation/addition, the cost has increased from $12.2 million in January 2024 to $16.9 million as of May 30; however, some of that has $4.7 million overrun has already been addressed, and some additional savings have also been found, with Vidaurri saying the total additional funding needed to complete the project at this time is in the $4 million range.
Both questioned and criticized by different council members during the approximate 40-minute presentation, Vidaurri outlined several scenarios for the council’s consideration that ranged from completing the project to hitting pause and regrouping.
“It sounds like there are discussions we need to have,” Mayor Billie Wallace said.
While the city council routinely livestreams its regular and special meetings, it doesn’t do so for its work sessions, as those are for discussion purposes only. (Livestreams are then posted as videos to the city's website). Because Friday’s agenda is a work session, there will be no action taken by the council.
The matter will likely be back before the council in a subsequent meeting, however, as the city is facing a July 23 deadline as to whether it will sign several project-related contracts that would lock in pricing at where it is now.
Written by Jo Ann Livingston/In The Know Ellis.
