Markets

Making the Music Come Alive

While it’s true that great ideas sometimes still arise as flashes of individual inspiration, creating real and lasting change in a community almost always requires the efforts of talented and dedicated people working together.
By Michael Senecal
November 9, 2021
Topics
Markets

While it’s true that great ideas sometimes still arise as flashes of individual inspiration, creating real and lasting change in a community almost always requires the efforts of talented and dedicated people working together.

A large-scale municipal construction project like the recently completed Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, Texas, is a perfect example. Drawing on their city’s heritage as the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Buddy Holly, Lubbock’s leaders worked together to introduce new energy to their city’s traditional downtown in the form of a beautiful and multifaceted 220,000-square-foot performing arts campus and educational center.

The area in downtown Lubbock where the Buddy Holly Hall complex now stands was left hollowed out by a devastating F5 tornado in 1970. Local leaders have positioned the Hall as the new cultural hub of Lubbock and the cornerstone of downtown commercial revitalization.

To transform their collective vision into a reality, a diverse stakeholder community needed to balance individual interests and obligations in support of a common cause. Any time that happens, the result is greater than the sum of its parts—and that surety producers are often integral to the process.

In the case of the Buddy Holly Hall, Howard Cowan, principal of Cowan-Hill Bonding Agency and a National Association of Surety Bond Producers past president, took responsibility for the surety process. As construction of the Hall was getting underway in 2017, Cowan, a long-time resident of Lubbock, was recognized by NASBP and The Surety & Fidelity Association of America as the 2017 Tiger Trust inductee for his instrumental role in ensuring surety requirements on the project.

“It’s really very rare in any major activity of life that things go exactly as planned, and construction certainly is an example of that,” Cowan says. “That’s the root benefit of surety bonds on projects such as the Buddy Holly Hall.”

A New Beginning

Though it may certainly be said that municipalities everywhere are challenged to channel their development in positive ways, it’s also safe to say that the people of Lubbock have had to overcome more than their fair share of developmental obstacles.

The 1970 storm not only devastated Lubbock’s central commercial district, but it also hit residential areas, killing 26 people and causing more than $125 million in damages. The city responded in 1977 by dedicating Lubbock Memorial Civic Center on a tract of land emptied by the storm, but business migration from the center to the periphery of Lubbock became endemic.

By the 2010s, downtown Lubbock mainly served as a government center, with commercial energy focused in the automobile-dominated outskirts of the city.

The time was right for an inflection point. The Buddy Holly Hall began to coalesce after the state of Texas moved some public offices out of the civic center area and the Texas state legislature awarded the vacated land back to Lubbock. In 2012, local charitable foundations commissioned the Garfield Public Private development firm to undertake a feasibility study that identified a need for a new performing arts center.

Leading that effort was the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce. The chairperson of the chamber at that time was Tim Collins, general partner and owner of Collins Tile LLC. In 2013, Collins was asked to serve as chair of the Lubbock Entertainment/Performing Arts Association (LEPAA), a newly created not-for-profit charged with delivering the center.

“Every great city has a great downtown,” Collins says. “Although our city center suffered for many years and has seen a great outflow of activity, we’re excited that the Buddy Holly Hall, along with some other efforts by current city leadership, is helping to bring that back.”

“Like a lot of mid-sized cities, we’re very much mindful of trying to create a reason for people to come downtown, not just to work but also to stay for meals and entertainment,” Cowan says. “The Buddy Holly Hall is absolutely pivotal to that.”

Pulling Together

The city of Lubbock awarded LEPAA an eight-acre tract to serve as the site for the new Buddy Holly Hall, and LEPAA secured the services of the internationally renowned design firm Diamond Schmitt Architects to conceptualize the facility.

Collins and his colleagues on the LEPAA board made good decisions not just by relying on each other but also by bringing in outside experts when needed.

“Our board was comprised of citizens of Lubbock who had something important to offer in one way or another but didn’t have expertise on the construction side,” Collins says. “But we had the right people there to help us through.”

One was a former assistant city manager who served as LEPAA’s initial executive director, Rob Allison. “His expertise was in city development, and he helped us wrap our arms around the complexity of the project,” Collins says.

In addition, Garfield Public Private transitioned from conducting the original feasibility study to the developer role itself.

“They’ve developed fine arts facilities around the country as well as hotels and other community facilities, and they had a great understanding of what this was going to take and could help us along,” Collins says.

Foremost in an agenda of equal priorities for LEPAA, however, has always been fundraising—apropos because LEPAA, as owner of the Hall, has presided over an entirely privately funded initiative (aside from the city land grant).

To get things started, the foundations instigating the feasibility study gave significant funds. Gilbert, Collins and the LEPAA board then stepped up to raise more than $100 million out of a more than $150 million construction budget. So far.

“It’s amazing the generosity that we find in friends and neighbors and our local corporate partners,” Collins says. “But we still have work to do.”
Providing Assurances

LEPAA made another good choice in securing the general contracting services of Lee Lewis Construction, a stalwart in Lubbock for more than 40 years. Owner Lee Lewis has worked with surety bond producer Howard Cowan since 1980.

“Lee has an unequaled reputation both for quality of work and for financial strength,” Cowan says. “He and I have both joked that we were much younger when we started.”

Initially, with the Hall on a very tight budget, LEPAA did not find a need to bond Lee Lewis. What really turned the tide was that pledges and commitments, as well as cash, were going to fall short of what was needed to complete the project on a satisfactory timeline.

“A consortium of Lubbock banks put together a bridge loan that essentially would fund the construction based on pledges and commitments that Lubbock citizens would need from 5 to 10 years to pay,” Cowan says.

Based on information provided by NASBP, the consortium decided that it could not risk seeing a dispute arise with a subcontractor or supplier that could cause a mechanic’s lien to be filed on the private project.

“They looked at several options and finally decided to go with a 100% performance and payment bond that would be filed in the county courthouse in compliance with the Texas Real Property Code,” Cowan says. “If you use the statutory form, especially for the payment bond, and you file it at the courthouse, the bond becomes a lien substitute in the event of a dispute.”

The hurdle was the size of the job, which was larger than average for Lee Lewis at the time. That made Cowan’s role especially important.
Working with Cowan as underwriter was Andy Clark of Liberty Mutual Insurance. Clark’s strong relationships with both the agent and the general contractor helped smooth the process.

“Howard was very forthcoming with information,” Clark says. “We track financing very closely on these types of projects.”

Sure enough, a disagreement that could have impacted the construction timeline did indeed arise. “One of the subcontractors from out of town was not manning the project as much as it should, and the quality of its work was not acceptable to the architect,” Cowan says.

As a result, the subcontractor’s pay estimate was held until it got back on the job and corrected the defective work. The subcontractor did not agree with that approach and attempted to file a lien on the project, only to be informed at the courthouse that, instead, he needed to file a claim against the payment bond.

“It took a few weeks, but the work continued, the dispute was settled and everything moved on,” Cowan says.

The Project of a Lifetime

The existence of the payment bond allowed work to proceed, satisfying the institutional financial stakeholders as well as individual contributors making long-term personal commitments.

“I happen to be one of the people who made a pledge that my wife and I will fulfill for several years—our money will contribute to the Buddy Holly Hall being completed and put to use,” Cowan says.

Protection extends beyond the particulars of the dispute with the subcontractor all the way to the reputational integrity of the stakeholder community as a whole.

“As chairman of LEPAA, I am deeply satisfied to have those bonds in place for the security and comfort of our donors,” Collins says. “We were able to assure donors in the eight-figure range that the building would be done and that we wouldn’t come out of it with legal ties and challenges at the end.”

Clark credits the principals. “We knew the type of people we were dealing with at Lee Lewis and have watched their work over the last several decades as a company,” he says. “They also have a top agent in Howard Cowan.”

At the same time, Lee Lewis itself went above and beyond to contribute its own assurances to the donor and institutional communities, according to Ryan Lewis, executive vice president at Lee Lewis and one of founder Lee Lewis’ two sons.

“We’ve taken a proactive role with members of the LEPAA board, providing information and resources about the construction process, the schedule, the finish- outs and more,” Ryan Lewis says.

“In addition, we’ve made sure that safety mechanisms and personnel have been in place to enable us to walk people through the project as it was being built, so that donors and potential donors could really be a part of it from the ground up,” he says.

Collins Tile also participated in the project, supplying quartz countertops, ceramic tile, as well as bathroom and kitchen concessions throughout the facility. For decades, Collins Tile has worked as a subcontractor on Lee Lewis projects.

“Lee’s been a great community partner and builder for as long as I can remember,” Collins says. “We were thrilled as a company to have the opportunity to work on the project—it’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of facility, I believe; and we were very pleased to be selected to get to do the tile and countertop work that we customarily do.”

The results are spectacular. Two theatres are capable of staging top local and touring events and accommodating the arts needs of the Lubbock Independent School District and surrounding small communities. Plus, the state-of-the-art venue promises to serve as a locus for a new kind of destination downtown in Lubbock.

“Being born and raised in Lubbock and now seeing our community acquire a world-class facility like the Buddy Holly Hall, it’s just been an honor for Lee Lewis as a company and for all of our employees and executive leadership to take part in and to witness,” Ryan Lewis says.

Meanwhile, even though those who enjoy the symphony or ballet at the Hall or who benefit from the facility as students and teachers may not realize it, a surety bond has been an important part in making the music and the magic come alive there, in a true community effort of success.

“The Buddy Holly Hall is the largest privately financed project in the history of West Texas by far,” Cowan says. “The bond was the most prudent choice to protect the project and everybody involved.”

This article was originally published in the Summer 2021 issue of the National Association of Surety Bond Producers magazine, Surety Bond Quarterly.

by Michael Senecal

Senecal is a freelance writer for the construction and insurance industries and a regular contributor to publications by Naylor Solutions and NASBP.

Related stories

Markets
Infrastructure: Going After IIJA-Funded Work Two Years Later
By Scott Berman
When is $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending not $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending? When it comes with a lot of regulations and requirements—and is subject to project labor agreements on many jobs. More than two years after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law, here’s what merit-shop contractors should know about going after IIJA-funded work.
Markets
Large Renovation Projects Will Be Abundant in 2024
By Mary Scott Nabers
Design-build isn't the only hot construction project topic. Large renovations are set to make a comeback this year—and stay relevant for years to come.
Markets
Strategic Interior Design Encourages Mental and Physical Wellbeing While Waiting at Urgent Care
By The Designers Group
Once the exterior of a building is constructed, that doesn't mean a project is over. Strategic interior design plays an important role in completing a project—especially in stressful environments like health-care facilities.

Follow us




Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Stay in the know with the latest industry news, technology and our weekly features. Get early access to any CE events and webinars.