MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The work at the old Pyramid arena doesn’t stop. There’s just a lot more of it than people thought there would be. All of the earthquake proofing stuff is slowing things down as well. “One of the reasons it’s taking so long,” says Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, “…is that we were in haste when we built it the first time, and did not see that it was built to seismic codes.”
Fixing the building for earthquakes was a must for Bass Pro. The city is going to spend up to twenty five million dollars for the work. Bass Pro, of course, is building a huge superstore inside the old “Tomb of Doom.” They are handling all the inside construction, where the shops and the indoor swamps and alligator ponds will be. Not to mention the hotel, and basically anything else that Bass Pro wants. They’ve been expanding their ideas for the Pyramid recently. None of their stuff is going in until the city’s work is done. “We’re a little behind schedule,” Mayor Wharton says. “It’s because of a little seismic work we had to do.”
Congratulations are in order. This project now joins a long list of city involved projects that weren’t built on time, or on budget. The Cannon Center opened almost two years late. The main branch of the Library was late. The FedExForum opened on time and on budget, but many say to do so, they removed one floor of a parking garage that had been in the original plans. In this case, the Mayor says it won’t be much of a delay. “We talked of opening in late 2013,” he said, “…and it now looks like it will be in early 2014.”
We have been told the head of the company checks on construction almost every day, and has already made several unannounced trips to the Pyramid to see how things are moving. Maybe they're moving slower, but nobody is truly concerned - at least not yet.
