Chase Center Opens on Schedule, Sets New Bar for Sports, Construction Industry Alike

Following years of planning and 31 months of construction, Chase Center is officially open for business. San Francisco’s modern-day landmark made its public debut in September, ushering in a new era for sports and entertainment in the Bay Area and setting a new benchmark for both the entertainment and construction industries, alike. Clark Construction, working alongside joint venture partner, Mortenson, turned over the keys to the new venue on August 1, making good on a schedule commitment the team made to the Warriors organization four years prior. 

Chase Center serves as home court to six-time NBA champions the Golden State Warriors and as a backdrop for more than 200 concerts, conventions, and cultural and community events a year.  The 18,000-seat arena anchors an 11-acre site – newly dubbed “Thrive City”, which also includes two 11-story office buildings, both components of Uber’s new corporate headquarters, as well as iconic, glass-enclosed broadcast studio, over 20 unique retail locations and 3.2-acres of publicly-accessible plazas, and a 925-space, below-grade parking structure. In addition to public spaces, the new arena also houses two practice courts, as well as locker rooms, team support facilities, and executive and administrative offices for Chase Center and Warriors personnel. 

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The exquisite new venue is equal parts arena and performance hall, with a flexible seating bowl that can accommodate sell-out crowds at basketball games or play host to intimate theater performances with audiences as small as 5,000. The amenity-rich facility also features premium finishes, luxury suites and club areas, a scalable rigging system, and cutting-edge technology, including its impressive 10,000 square-foot LED scoreboard, positioning it in a class of its own. 

At $1.4 billion and two million square feet, Chase Center ranks among the largest and most technically-complex construction projects in the country. Clark and Mortenson worked with deliberate purpose to ensure they produced a game-changing result for the Warriors, the city of San Francisco, and the construction industry, alike. They delivered, and, in doing so, set a new bar for construction excellence on many fronts:  

Setting a New Safety Standard

“No One Gets Hurt!” More than just a feel-good slogan, No One Gets Hurt was Mortenson | Clark’s promise to provide a safe work environment for everyone who entered the Chase Center jobsite; it was also a call to action for the thousands of craftworkers who contributed to the project to work safely and be accountable, every day. The team backed up their words with tangible actions that yielded compelling results in the field and an exceptional safety record demonstrated by a recordable rate of .53 – six times lower than the national average. 

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The joint venture implemented a rich and robust program that ensured safety was a critical factor in the project’s success. Their holistic approach promoted thoughtful and persistent planning, personal accountability, commitment at the top, relentless observation and analysis, and personal recognition. 

More than 9,800 men and women worked 5.3 million hours to construct Chase Center, safely putting in place nearly $600 million of work a year. The value and importance that Mortenson | Clark placed created a culture where everyone was accountable and a warrior for safety, working to ensure “No One Got Hurt”.

Raising the Bar on Innovation

From the project’s outset, the joint venture team fostered a culture of persistent innovation. Inspired by the forward-thinking, tech-centric community where Chase Center resides, and the Golden State Warriors’ relentless pursuit of excellence, the team set out to leverage technology as a true differentiator. Through their use of a dynamic and robust 4D Synchro model, drones, and virtual reality mock-ups, they achieved that goal.

Construction moved at an unfathomable pace. At peak, more than 1,500 individuals worked on site, putting in place as much as $2.8 million of work a day. To heighten planning and tackle the project’s massive scale, design complexity, site constraints, and timeline, Mortenson | Clark leveraged a highly-dynamic and detailed 4D Synchro model. That model provided a platform to develop, test, and resolve schedule outcomes throughout the lifecycle of the project, ensuring predictability, and increasing safety, efficiency, and performance; it also transformed Chase Center’s 36,000-activity P6 schedule into a visual tool that effectively communicated the team’s plan to project stakeholders.

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In the end, the team’s management of the 4D schedule added certainty to the building process, and in turn for the Warriors, on what is one of the most logistically-challenging sports and entertainment projects in the country. The team’s efforts set a new benchmark for advanced 4D modeling– one that is being recognized by the industry with awards such as Bentley Systems’ YII 2019 Award for Advancements in 4D Construction Modeling and an Autodesk 2019 AEC Excellence Award.

Leaving a Legacy Impact 

Chase Center’s construction isn’t just a story of innovative engineering, it is also one of tremendous economic impact for San Francisco. 

Mortenson | Clark understood the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the project presented for the community and worked tirelessly to ensure local residents and small businesses played a meaningful role in the construction effort. Through their commitment, and working in partnership with key stakeholders, such as the Warriors, San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, and Bay Area labor unions, the team awarded more than $245 million in construction contracts to small business enterprises and secured 574 San Francisco resident job placements. 

“Mortenson | Clark and the Warriors made an intentional decision to ensure that Chase Center’s legacy would be one of long-term economic opportunity for local businesses and San Francisco residents.” 

- Peter Bryan, Vice President of Design and Construction, Golden State Warriors

Further, though an innovative partnership with the Warriors, JPMorgan Chase, and San Francisco CityBuild, Mortenson | Clark helped 77 San Francisco residents build the skills needed to begin new construction careers through Chase Center Training, the project’s workforce development program. The team placed 48 graduates in jobs at Chase Center and leveraged other pre-apprenticeship training programs to ultimately secure project sponsorships for a total of 108 San Francisco residents – five times more than any other project in San Francisco.

Because of their efforts, Chase Center is a model for how large-scale construction projects can transform not only the built environment, but also lives and a community through the creation of jobs and economic opportunities for area residents and small businesses.