San Benito moving $40M bond project site, mulls options for aquatics center

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SAN BENITO — After shutting down construction nearly two years ago, San Benito school district officials are planning to move the site of a $40 million bond-funded project to a new location, blaming building foundation flaws along the barren strip off Interstate 69.

While they’re planning to build a performing arts center at a new site, officials are considering “options” for construction of an aquatics center.

After about three years, the school board decided to move the project to a new location while leaving behind two rising structures built for about $12 million at the old site sitting on district property near Dr. Raul Garza Elementary School, where officials were building the district’s first performing arts theater and aquatics center.

“The SBCISD board of trustees is in the process of evaluating a new site for a new performing arts center,” Baltazar Salazar, the district’s Houston-based construction attorney, said in a statement. “It would be economically unfeasible to correct all the construction defects at the old site.”

Meanwhile, officials are “evaluating potential sites” for construction of an aquatics center, he said.

“The SBCISD also continues to explore potential options for building a natatorium and will keep its stakeholders informed of any developments,” Salazar said.

Now, officials are looking for a new contractor to oversee the project’s construction.

“The SBCISD will be advertising for a design-build contractor with specifications by the end of November and hopes to recommend a design-build contractor to the SBCISD board of trustees by the middle of December,” Salazar said.

Officials are also planning to take legal action against some companies that worked on the project’s construction, declining to disclose the companies’ names.

“The SBCISD board of trustees authorized the filing of a lawsuit against parties it deems responsible for construction issues at the current natatorium and performing arts center construction site,” Salazar said.

Now facing escalated materials’ prices, district officials offered no projected overall construction cost while giving no timetable.

In January, the school board found Davila Construction, the San Antonio-based contractor which launched the project in late 2021, in default of its contract about two years after a construction team found foundation flaws leading to the work’s shutdown.

Last month, the board entered into a settlement with Davila Construction’s insurance company paying $13.3 million to help jump-start the project.

The $13.3 million settlement with the Berkley insurance and surety company covered the district’s payments to Davila Construction, board President Orlando Lopez said.

“The SBCISD paid Davila Construction approximately $12.7 million and has so far recovered $13.3 million,” Salazar said.

As part of a contract, Berkley surety bonds protected the district “for the full contract price in the amounts of $21.3 million, $8.8 million and $1.8 million should Davila Construction default on the contract,” district officials stated in January, referring to the project which included construction of the $21.3 million performing arts theater and the $8.8 million aquatics center.

“The district gave Berkley Insurance notice of default of the contract and made a claim for the performing and the payment bonds in the amount of $21.3 million, $8.8 million and $1.8 million,” officials said at the time.

In response to questions surrounding the claim’s monetary amounts, Salazar stated the district “settled for $13.3 million.”

Now, the district has $29.3 million to fund construction of the project whose originally estimated $30 million cost was calculated around 2019.

“The SBCISD currently has deposited in interest-bearing bank accounts a balance of $29,374,370.39 designated bond monies,” Salazar said.

Meanwhile, the district is keeping “several million dollars” worth of construction materials, Lopez said.

The school board’s decision to relocate the project comes after months of construction site reviews.

In March 2023, then-Superintendent Theresa Servellon, under a previous school board, ordered the construction project halted after architect Mike Allex, with McAllen-based ROFA Architects, reported finding some geopiers, or deeply anchored 2-foot-wide rock columns, misaligned with the buildings’ foundation targets.

For months, Allex and officials with Davila Construction worked to determine repair plans aimed at jump-starting construction.

Then in January, Superintendent Fred Perez’s office said the team “concluded that the remediation is not prudent or feasible based on the number and the extent of construction discrepancies.”

Since a previous school board proposed the $40 million bond issue in 2018, the construction project has become one of city’s hottest topics.

In 2018, a previous administration pushed for the bond issue to fund construction of the district’s first performing arts theater and aquatics center along with an indoor practice field.

In a heated election, 54% of voters passed the bond issue.

As part of the overall project, district officials set out to build a $21.3 million performing arts theater, an $8.8 million aquatics center and a $5.7 million indoor practice field, which has been completed.

Under a 2019 contract, the district paid the Edinburg-based Brighton Group a $1.25 million fee to serve as project manager based on estimated $30 million construction costs.

In October 2021, Davila Construction launched the project to build the performing arts theater and aquatics center.

By February 2023, the school board was terminating the Brighton Group’s contract without cause, with the construction project about halfway completed, officials said at the time.

By now, the project has fallen about two years behind schedule.

In February 2023, before officials called the work shutdown, a district report showed Davila Construction was requesting the performing arts theater’s completion date be pushed from July 21 to Dec. 28, 2023, while the aquatics center’s completion date be moved from April 14 to Sept. 19 of that year.

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