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The numbers are starting to add up on the Bellevue sports complex under construction.
The roster of youth softball teams from around the country signing up to play ball at Cat Osterman Champions Village has reached 140, leaving 40 to go to reach the city's goal of 180.
Legal expenses for the $6.5 million complex also are growing and are expected to surpass $100,000 in January.
The complex of six softball diamonds plus housing and a tournament headquarters building is under construction south of Offutt Air Force Base.
“We are still signing up teams on a daily basis,” said Dave Compton, a Bellevue business owner and a local investor in the project. “We feel pretty good about where we are at.”
The city's legal expenses for the project have grown more quickly since former city of Omaha attorney Ken Bunger was hired as project manager.
The city paid Bunger $19,751 for legal work from September through November. He also has billed the city for an additional $17,506, but the City Council delayed approval until at least January — if Bunger provides justification for the amount.
The city's total legal expenses for the project include payments to the city's primary law firm and another firm that worked on the project in 2007.
Longtime Bellevue City Councilman David Sanborn voted against hiring Bunger, and he called Bunger's contract a duplication of services provided by City Attorney Patrick Sullivan.
“It's expensive, and I felt it was unnecessary,” Sanborn said of Bunger's contract. “Our city attorney was working this thing all along, and all of a sudden, Mr. Bunger came in there and everything had to be reviewed by him. Now, if some other problem comes up, Ken Bunger would be essentially authorized to keep going.”
Sanborn criticized the contract the city has with Bunger because it does not limit how much Bunger can charge the city per month. Sanborn said Bunger's final legal bills could range between $50,000 and $75,000.
According to Bunger's contract, Bellevue is paying him $3,500 a month for 20 hours of work. If he works more than 20 hours, he earns $150 an hour.
Bunger also received a one-time fee of $4,500 for drafting the redevelopment land-use plan.
Besides Bunger, the city's primary law firm, Sullivan & Adams, has been paid $44,000 for work on the complex. Former city attorney John Herdzina's private law firm made $14,600 for its work on the project in 2007.
Still, the legal fees for the Bellevue complex are minimal compared with expenses for Sarpy County's $26 million minor league stadium project for the Omaha Royals.
Sarpy County so far has paid the law firm of former Nebraska senator Kermit Brashear $816,265 through his most recent bill, Dec. 8, for roughly 13 months of work as project manager.
A project manager with experience working with big public-private deals was necessary, said Bellevue City Administrator Gary Troutman, because of where the Bellevue project was at the time.
Troutman brought Bunger into the ballfield project well after the city approved it in April and after construction began in June.
When Bunger was hired, Bellevue had yet to finalize its land-purchase agreements with Utah-based investors. A formal management agreement was lacking, and the sale of bonds to finance construction had yet to happen.
The 20-year redevelopment bond financing was obtained Dec. 2, Bunger said.
Without Bunger, Troutman said, the multimillion-dollar sports project could have collapsed and there would have been no hope of reviving the unique public-private partnership.
“Ken was recommended to us, so that's how he got involved,” Troutman said. “Bottom line, we needed to keep the project moving, and we were going to be fighting the weather. We needed to get the softball village bonded, so the construction was expedited.”
Bunger spent nearly 30 years as a lawyer for the city of Omaha and handled such public-private construction projects as the ConAgra Foods and Gallup campuses, the Union Pacific headquarters, the First National Tower and the Qwest Center Omaha.
“Right now, everything is on schedule to open next summer,” Bunger said. “There's certainly a number of things that have to be done before you open a facility. There are insurance issues, construction issues, management agreements.
“The baseball and softball village — it's a very big positive for the city of Belleuve, and the investment is well worth the return to the city.”
Construction on the softball complex is about 80 percent done despite recent snowstorms. Weather permitting, construction should begin in January on two housing barracks for visiting players, along with a tournament headquarters building.
So far, teams are signed up to play from Hawaii, Arizona, Texas and California, as well as three teams from Nebraska. Organizers want to attract at least 180 travel teams for next season's inaugural play.
“It was something needed for the city of Bellevue,” said Compton, one of the investors. “These are going to be very, very, nice fields. We are looking to be open in April or early May.”
Contact the writer:
444-1056, john.ferak@owh.com
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