The City of North Augusta is under the gun on the construction of its downtown parking deck.
The parking deck was a key part of the deal, known as Project Slumber, to bring the headquarters of anesthesiology billing company Medac to North Augusta. The plan for the parking structure is to be used by Medac employees during the day and North Augusta residents after business hours. Now, the construction of the parking facility has fallen behind that of the Medac building.
"We've been shooting for the first weekend in September to have the parking deck completed," said North Augusta City Administrator Todd Glover. "We're hoping we can beat that date. We've had some bad luck with the weather and were delayed four months by the Corps of Engineers."
The parking deck and Medac buildings were to be completed together, which would allow for the estimated 600 employees of Medac to have an area for parking to reduce congestion downtown. With the parking structure falling behind and the Medac building nearing completion, the City may have to pay additional monies to cover rent and other expenses to Medac.
"They aren't penalties; that's not the correct term," Glover said. "They call it liquidated damages in the contract - they can't move in and they have expenses where they are now. They have obligations and have no control over when the buildings will be completed for them to move in."
The liquidated damages are a daily fee in the contract which, from July 25 to Aug. 24 will run $3,130. After the Aug. 24 date, the daily fee goes up to $5,260. With the early September date as a deadline, the City would pay more than $150,000 in liquidated damages.
"The benefit of them moving into our downtown far outweighs the cost of liquidated damages," Glover said. "The taxes they would pay in their first year in North Augusta would more than cover the amount paid (in damages). We would continue to get that tax money long after having paid all of the damages."
The early September completion date was confirmed to Glover on Thursday during a meeting with SPS North Augusta LLC - the developer of the parking garage.