Silverthorne officials presented project updates for the town’s $29 million recreation center expansion as its project partners hashed through managing expectations and next steps.

In April, Silverthorne residents voted to take lodging tax from 6% to 8% to provide funding for the project and other capital improvement projects. While design concepts are nearing finalization, Silverthorne Town Council learned at an Aug. 28 meeting that the town plans to secure a contractor by mid-March to carry out construction.

The 23,000 square-foot expansion includes a viewing area, more gym space and a childcare center.

Chris Guarino, a Summit County resident, from the Artaic Group introduced himself at the Aug. 28 meeting as the owner’s representative and explained his role was to represent the interest of the town and taxpayers and ensure the project stays on budget.

He said Silverthorne Town Council will act as an executive committee he reports to when it comes down to making decisions.

He said a major part of his job is keeping the entire process to the $29 million budget and advising the town on the most cost-effective strategies while also striving to meet its goals.

That will involve managing expectations around phasing. He said, due to the role he’s been tasked with, there’s one expectation he hopes council will consider letting go of in certain cases: committing to keep the recreation center open and having no construction-related closures. He said the town had communicated to him this was a goal of the council.

“We’re going to give you the option to consider that a couple of times,” he said.

He continued the budget might warrant a closure from time to time.  

“We may be able to save you money sometimes by saying, ‘Hey, look, we could do this over 10 nights and it’s going to cost X, or we could do it over a day and a half and it’s going to cost X minus (what it would have cost over 10 nights),” Guarino told council.

He said he will work with council to figure out a course of action, something like a tradeoff with pass holders who could be impacted by closures, in the event council decides a closure makes the most sense. 

The $29 million budget encompasses both the “hard costs” such as the construction and “soft costs” such as furniture and equipment, according to Guarino. 

As far as hard costs for construction goes, the town will budget $23 million. 

Council member Tim Applegate wondered what the protocol was if its determined construction would cost more than $23 million. Guarino said the owner’s representatives would use “value engineering,” or as he described it, determining what is necessary, before coming to council to notify them of a possible increase. 

He said the situation where a major increase occurs is unlikely to arise without the council knowing about it since he keeps in frequent contact with the executive committee during these processes. 

He added there’s two mechanisms in place within the overall budget to avoid situations where there is an unexpected rise in cost.

Guarino said within that budget will be two different owner’s contingency, which is money that will account for unanticipated costs for a variety of reasons. 

There will be a contingency budget within that $23 million to account for when unexpected costs in construction pop up. He said this budget number will be disclosed to the general contractor, who has not been chosen yet. 

The other contingency will be budgeted for increases in soft costs. For instance, if there is a piece of workout equipment the town decides it wants to buy but didn’t budget for, it could use the contingency to cover its cost. 

Guarino said this contingency will not be disclosed to the general contract.

Silverthorne will continue to have work sessions as apart of their town council meeting to hash trough details of the expansion.