Builder chosen for Regina's new $278M football stadium

The same company responsible for Regina City Square has been selected as the preferred builder for the city's $278 million stadium.

On Friday, the City of Regina announced the bid led by PCL ConstructionManagement won out over two other bidders.

PCL would handle the construction and finance on the projectdesigned to be the new home for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

People will see activity in 2014.- Brent Sjoberg, City of Regina

"[It's a] very credible firm that's managing things overall," Brent Sjoberg, the lead manager of the project for the City of Regina said Friday. "[PCL] understands Saskatchewan and ... has a lot of local supply relationships they'll be drawing on throughout the course of the project."

PCL's roots are in Saskatchewan as the company was founded by Ernest Poole who had moved to the province from P.E.I. in 1906 to find work as a carpenter. He moved to Regina in 1919 and eventually to Edmonton where the corporate head offices were established in 1932.

It grew considerably and is today one of the largest construction firms in Canada with significant operations in the U.S. and abroad.

Also working with PCL is HKS, the lead design engineer. That's the same company behind the stadium used by the Dallas Cowboys.

B+H Architects is listed as the architect of record and TD Securities is the financial adviser. B+H notes, on its website, that the new football stadium in Hamilton is one of its projects. That stadium is set to open this June.

The two other shortlisted companies who didn't get the building contract are Bouygues Construction Graham Community Partners and Clark Builders (Turner Construction).

The winning bidders are called the "preferred" contractors, because the deal isn't final yet. The city expects that will happen over the next few weeks.

So far, there's no sneak peak on what PCL's stadium will look like.

The city says the final design may not look like some of the concept images that have been released as the stadium project has moved along.

Regina stadium to open in 2017

The city has also insisted the builder provide "an on-time and on-budget project". The stadium has been promised to be ready for the 2017 football season.

Some work on the site, the exhibition grounds in Regina known as Evraz Place, has been done and Sjoberg said he expects that will ramp up soon.

"There shouldn't be any real road blocks to them getting going," Sjoberg said. "It's a matter of when they can get mobilized [and] it will be this construction season, so people will see activity in 2014."

• Regina's stadium loan: 63 easy payments of $2.8M
• Quiz: Think you know your stadium project?

The budgetfor constructionis $278 million. The overall cost for the stadium, over 30 years, is $664 million, according to figures from the city.