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Delays Hike Cost of Convention Center Expansion
Two years of delayed demolition work on the Convention Center expansion have taken a toll: The project's first-phase costs are at least $20 million higher than anticipated, according to sources close to the project. Those costs represent a 10 percent to 15 percent increase over budget, and could raise the $700 million price tag of the expansion unless cuts are found elsewhere. Convention Center and state officials say they are working to clamp down on spending in the project's later phases so as not to return to the state to ask for more money. Already, design plans have been altered, with some meeting space scrapped and a large kitchen scaled down. Demolition is under way, but construction has not begun. Building officials realized last month that costs were escalating when they received higher-than-expected bids for construction of the building's frame, due to rising steel and cement prices. "What we owe the state and the city is trying to work as hard as we can to try to control the costs of the project," state Budget Secretary Michael Masch said yesterday. The state is funding the project. Masch acknowledged the higher costs but would not confirm the exact figure. He also said the state was hoping to absorb the extra dollars through contingency funds included in the overall project. "I'm not saying that we can," he continued. "If we cannot, we are going to have to look at the revenue side of the equation." As they wrestle with costs, officials are about to face another change: Al Mezzaroba, president and chief executive since 2003, will step down two months from tomorrow. "He has told me that he wants to leave as president, and pursue opportunities in the private sector and go into private practice," Convention Center Chairman Thomas "Buck" Riley said. Rather than the center's launching a national search, Riley said yesterday, Mezzaroba is likely to be replaced by the center's executive vice president, Ahmeenah Young. "I expect a vote will happen Wednesday," during the board's monthly meeting, he said "and I expect Ahmeenah will be selected as the new president." Mezzaroba did not return a call yesterday. Riley and other Convention Center officials said Mezzaroba's departure was unrelated to any delay in the expansion or the project's rising costs. "I'm very proud of the work Al did while he was there," Mayor Nutter said yesterday, noting that he himself rose to become board chairman at the same time that Mezzaroba was hired as the center's top executive. He added: "There should be no concern about the expansion project itself moving forward, notwithstanding a change in leadership." By several accounts, Mezzaroba's continued presence at the center was responsible for some of the delay. Though Mezzaroba maintained the strong backing of his board, Gov. Rendell time and again called for his ouster, holding up for a time the state's commitment to pay for the center's $700 million expansion. Rendell criticized Mezzaroba's credentials - he is a lawyer and former City Council aide with ties to powerful State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo but had no professional management experience. With Mezzaroba soon to leave, Masch yesterday indicated that the governor may again push for a private management company to operate the center day to day. The expansion project also has been slowed by a drawn-out disagreement over a lease agreement between the governor and the center's board, as well as City Council objections to initial plans for minority hiring by the construction trade unions. Two years passed before all those issues were resolved, and while the cost of building materials and supplies climbed, cost estimates for the project were not updated, said three people familiar with the project. The expansion is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The expansion would extend the building, which opened in 1993, from 13th Street to Broad Street between Arch and Race Streets, increasing the amount of exhibit and meeting space by 60 percent.
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