Sandy Springs Chooses Holder as Construction Manager For City Center Project

The city of Sandy Springs has taken another major step in turning its City Center project into a reality.

The Sandy Springs City Council at its Jan. 6 meeting unanimously voted to choose Holder Construction Company to serve as Construction Manager at Risk to work alongside the city and its partners to develop components of the project.

The city considered five metro Atlanta-based firms — Holder, Balfour Beatty, McCarthy Building Companies, Skanska and Whiting-Turner — for the proposal, which were chosen through a request for qualifications and proposal process.

“We are fortunate to have a number of highly regarded firms to choose from,” said City Manager John McDonough. “The quality of the Holder team, coupled with the firm’s experience, including construction of many performing arts centers, as well as the level of detail they provided related to scheduling, provided us with a high level of confidence in making the recommendation to the City Council.”

Founded in 1960, Atlanta-based Holder is one of the largest construction management firms in the area. It’s constructed more than 23 million square feet in mixed-use developments and 22 performing arts centers, in addition to $5.9 billion in public buildings.

Previous clients include Cox Enterprises’ C-Tech and corporate headquarters campus; Devon Energy’s World Headquarters in Oklahoma City; Bowie State University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center; Virginia Tech’s Center for Performing Arts and Turner Street mixed-use development in Blacksburg, Virginia; and the city of Raleigh Plaza and Marriot Hotel in the city’s downtown area.

Holder will work alongside the city and its partners — Carter/Selig (program manager), Rosser International (architect) and jB+a, Inc. (landscape architect) — in the design and construction of the civic facilities within the project.

The selected firm will assist in the design phase of the project by evaluating cost, schedules and implications of alternative designs, as well as constructability reviews and value engineering.

The council in September approved a Construction Manager at Risk delivery method for the project. This method brings a manager in during the design phase, to advise on costs, schedule, materials, methods and logistics. The construction manager will also provide a guaranteed maximum price for the project based upon the drawings and specifications.

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