FARMINGTON — Davis County officials may be facing their last chance to have the proposed Davis County convention center and hotel built in time for the 2002 Olympics.
The county is now dealing with the option of either using the original bid winner for the project in some capacity or starting over with a time-consuming bid process.
It's been nearly three years since county commissioners announced plans to build the center in Layton, but because of numerous setbacks and postponements, those plans have yet to get off the ground.
Commissioners originally gave the project to Big D Construction in 1998. Since that time, Big D relinquished its rights to the project to Quantum Construction & Development. Commissioners were dealt a major setback in July when Quantum Construction & Development, the company to which Big D signed over interest, opted out of building the center.
The county released its contracts and settled financially with its architect, Big D and Quantum, and was left with a "footprint" plan but no set developer.
"We would be tickled to death to use Big D (the original bid winner)," Commissioner Gayle Stevenson said Wednesday. "If we took Big D out of the picture, we would have to start from scratch. . . . It's like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. It is terribly frustrating — I've done this about six times."
Recently, N & S Development in Layton has been talking with county officials about building the project, but unless Big D is involved, the county may have to start over with the bid process, Stevenson said.
According to Stevenson, what happens over the next few weeks may determine whether the project comes to fruition at all. Stevenson, who retires from office at the end of this year, has been the commission's spokesman for the project and its biggest supporter since day one.
"I am worried. . . . All of the background on the project is going to leave with me," he said. "It's got to happen in 30 days because it needs to be completed by next January."
Stevenson hopes he can leave office with the contract situation resolved and the conference center under way.
The $4.5 million convention center would also fill a needed niche along the Wasatch Front, he said, by providing another option to large convention centers in Salt Lake City and Ogden.
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