Companies in the running to build St. Catharines' performing arts centre have overshot the city's budget.  Even the St. Catharines Standard reports even the lowest initial bid is $10-million too high.

The city has pegged the build at around $42-million dollars.  But the Standard says the bids from pre-qualified firms range from $52.5-million to $59.9-million.

City planners will be looking at ways to knock the price of the project down in the next week or so.

Council will deal with the issue at their August 27th meeting.