Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Over the last several months, negotiations have continued in an effort to finalize the deal to construct a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park.
While deadlines to finalize the deal have been extended, work remains ongoing to get the stadium deal done, as amicable talks continue between all parties involved in discussions.
"It was a month ago when the most recent deadline to finalize the stadium deal was extended, with a new deadline to extend the "exclusivity period" set for 30 days after the final determination on the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) by Erie County.
One of the main parties in negotiations to finalize the deal is New York State, who is set to contribute $600 million worth of the $1.4 billion price tag to build the stadium. At the forefront of the push to get a new stadium deal done for the Bills is Gov. Kathy Hochul.
For the last few months, Gov. Hochul has been dealing with a gubernatorial race in the state, that recently wrapped up with a win over Republican candidate Lee Zeldin. While the race for Governor of New York may finally be in the rear view mirror, Hochul says that a deal for the Bills stadium was not affected by the election.
"Every 30 years, you need to negotiate a new stadium, and there's a timetable - you do it within a budget context, and you get agreements. So we've been on a path to complete resolutions so we can start moving ahead and have shovels in the ground," said Gov. Hochul during an event in Buffalo on Monday. "All the agreements related to the project labor agreements, that's still being negotiated, but it is very much [ongoing]. There's no speeding up or slowing down, it's just get it done. We're all very anxious to have this done as soon as possible."
Hochul adds that with the project labor agreement, terms of that part of the deal with labor unions is still being worked out with the Bills, so the matter hasn't been settled at this time.
It was just about three weeks ago when the Bills released renderings of the new stadium that were developed and designed by Populous. The new stadium for the Bills will be designed with football first in mind, and will be developed with the fans of Buffalo in mind.
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As fans got the chance to get their first look at the future home of the Bills, contractors and vendors in Western New York are also game planning for their chance to get in on the construction of the new stadium across the street from Highmark Stadium on Abbott Road.
The construction management team to build the new stadium in Orchard Park, a joint venture featuring Gilbane Building Company and Turner Construction Company in association with 34 Group, held a contractor information session on Monday for vendors, suppliers, trade contractors, and professional services firms. It was the first of four information sessions over the next few weeks that are trying to get the word out of what the opportunities are and to gauge the interest of local businesses to help contribute to the new stadium project.
"It's just trying to create kind of a level playing field, and make sure everybody has an opportunity to participate in this project," said co-principal in-charge of Gilbane | Turner, John LaRow. "It's really important that we get as many local and diverse contractors and workforce involved as we can, and this is a really important step in that."
LaRow was in awe of the amount of people that attended Monday's informational sessions, saying there were around 300 people between the two sessions, which was filled to capacity.
Among the number of prospective contractors and companies in attendance for Monday's informational session included Iroquois Bar Corp., owned by Tom Saia, who's a minority contractor and has been involved in construction for 35 years. While he's been through a lot of these types of sessions, Saia appreciates that they are getting out of the gate early on these efforts with the new stadium.
"There's a lot of time before our boots are on the ground, so sometimes people just get distracted with that, and then all of a sudden, when the trucks are rolling, and they go, 'Wait a minute, I didn't know what was happening.' This is well ahead of the curve, and I think that's a great decision by Gilbane | Turner and the rest of the group," said Saia on Monday.
It's exciting to see that they are trying to reach out to the local community to find the resources and supply chain to actually make this dream come to reality," added Domenic Cortese, President of Cortese Construction Services and host of "The Home Improvement Show" on WBEN. "It was also good just to see the process of how this whole thing comes together."
Cortese says that are in attendance from an interest of providing the company's custom cabinet line - Bella Cucina custom cabinet line - into the stadium. He says it would be very exciting to be a part of the project at that level.
"I think they've hit the ground running with being organized to be an effective leadership team. That's my first impression," Cortese said. "I think they've got the resources in place on the website to try and create the outreach to the building community in Western New York, to really make this an effective effort."
While a number of different questions and topics were addressed with the project and process on Monday, LaRow says the biggest thing being asked was about how to navigate a process to get involved.
"That's really the biggest thing about what we put out there, in terms of timing, how do you get engaged, go to the website get pre-qualified. To me, that was the biggest thing, and actually having people here that can answer very specific questions for specific trades," LaRow said. "Also, [it was] the opportunity for teams to find teaming arrangements. From contractors to meet with other contractors to find those opportunities, where if they can't be a prime contractor, they might have an opportunity to bid as a sub-prime underneath some of those primes. We call it 'matchmaking', and an opportunity for people to get to know people."
For many of the contractors and other companies on-hand for Monday's informational session, there are plenty of exciting opportunities with being a part of the construction of a new stadium that will keep the beloved Bills in Western New York for years to come.
"We're a 70-year-old family-owned construction company here in Buffalo, and to have our legacy live on in the stadium would be quite a successful undertaking to be able to have that happen. So yeah, we'd be very excited to be a part of it."
"Just being a Western New York resident, it excites me with the whole project," added Saia. "It's finally getting done, we've talked about it, and it's really going to happen. That's really it."
As for potential concerns with the proposed project going forward, Saia feels a lot of people that attended Monday's session feel the same way when it comes to the labor and people working to get the stadium done.
"People who are in the trades, non-union or union. It's truck capacity, I lean towards a lot of heavy equipment. I can find the equipment, but I can't find individuals to drive them. It may take some people out of town to do this, and I know people may look a little funny at that, but I think it's really capacity, as far as a challenge," Saia said. "It's a national thing, too, so we're no different."
As for a timeline of construction work set to get underway on the new Bills stadium, LaRow says they are looking to star some of the make-ready work in the second quarter of 2023, with some of the major work hoping to get started in the middle of next year.
"A lot of things need to happen before all that, so we're just trying to take a parallel path to make sure when all those agreements get signed, we're ready to go," he said.