Award: Stadium upgrade
Value: $398.5 million project budget
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Client: University of Florida
Brasfield & Gorrie will serve as general contractor on a $398.5 million renovation of “The Swamp,” home of the University of Florida Gators’ football team, per public project documents.
University planning documents for the renovation of the stadium, more formally known as Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, list the Birmingham, Alabama-based contractor along with Kansas City, Missouri-based Crawford Architects as the project team.
The Gainesville, Florida-based university’s athletic association seeks to upgrade the venue, first built in 1930 and last renovated in 2003, through multiple phases in order to preserve the history of the stadium, while also improving and upgrading spaces, per documentation that described stadium goals for potential builders.
Those goals include adding additional space at stadium entrances, throughout the concourse and at special areas where fans congregate. The project team will also improve circulation for vertical movement; seat, restroom and concession access; and limit concourse congestion in general.
Areas of the stadium previously used for the Gators football program have been vacated, as the team moved to the Heavener Football Training Center in August 2022, after a two-year construction of that facility. Recommendations to fill that space, now vacant after the program’s movement, include a central kitchen and commissary and premium clubs or lounges.
A public meeting to discuss the project is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. in Gainesville. Brasfield & Gorrie declined to comment, referring questions to the University of Florida, which did not respond to Construction Dive by the time of publication.
The 2003 renovation of the stadium added 2,900 club seats and luxury suites, per Swamp247, a news outlet focused on all things Gators athletics.
Construction is slated to begin in April 2027, Swamp247 reported, as the university eyes February 2030 for final completion. When finished, the stadium’s capacity will reach 84,399, Swamp247 reported, a decrease from the venue’s currently listed capacity of 88,548.
