PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Costs are soaring for renovations to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The Rhode Island Convention Center Authority now says it will need an additional $15 million to finish the work.
That’s a 24 percent cost overrun that comes as lawmakers are struggling to find money for other priorities, from health care to education.
The authority, an independent agency that owns the civic center, is preparing to ask lawmakers to borrow the money, and taxpayers would have to repay any new debt, according to The Providence Journal.
That would leave the state with an additional $1.2 million in annual debt payments.
for the next 30 years.
“That’s adding a lot of stress on the budget,” Rep. Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, chairman of the House Finance Committee, told the Providence Journal. “That’s a significant overrun.”
The news comes as lawmakers are already struggling to plug an anticipated $360 million budget shortfall.
The three-year overhaul to the civic center includes luxury suites, new seats and a pedestrian bridge connecting the arena with the convention center.
In the summer of 2004, the authority estimated the project’s cost at $58 million, relying on a study by Ellerbe Becket, a Minnesota consulting firm.
By the following spring, when the authority asked the state for permission to borrow money to buy the arena from Providence, the renovation price had already jumped to $62 million, a jump blamed on inflation and the rising cost of construction materials.
The price has now reached about $77 million.
The overhaul is slated to be finished by December 2008. The building is scheduled to close later this month so crews can renovate the lobby and complete the suites and bridge.
James P. McCarvill, the authority’s executive director, said he’ll submit the funding request in the next several days. Hearings before the House and Senate Finance committees could be held in the next two weeks.
He said the rising cost of building materials, primarily steel and concrete, accounts for at least $5 million of the overrun.
“We are out of options,” McCarvill said. “We are going to need more money. Either that, or we won’t complete the project.”
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