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August 31, 1995

$52 million now projected cost of convocation center

The latest projected cost of Pitt's convocation and sports center is $52 million — $17 million more than the estimate University administrators presented to the Board of Trustees in October.

Even the $52 million figure is a rough estimate that's likely to change before fall 1998, when the center is scheduled to open, said Ben J. Tuchi, Pitt senior vice chancellor for Budget and Finance.

"That [$52 million estimate] is based on an architectural-engineering formula multiplying the number of seats the convocation center is expected to have — 12,500 — by $3,400, and then adding in the normal soft costs for a project like that: financing costs, architect and engineering fees and so on," Tuchi said.

"Once the project goes to the architects and engineers for specific estimates, I would be surprised if it were right on for $52 million. It's going to have to be more or less," he said.

Tuchi declined to speculate whether the price tag is more likely to increase or decrease. "I can't assess that right now," he said. "We just don't have the figures." But he added: "Remember, that $52 million is based on 1995 dollars." The earlier projected cost of $35 million dates back to 1988, Tuchi said. It did not figure for inflation since then, and was made before a site for the center had been chosen, he noted.

The center, which will host Pitt basketball games, academic ceremonies and other events, is planned for a site adjacent to Pitt Stadium.

The $52 million figure accounts for road improvements and other costs that planners could not estimate until the location was known, Tuchi said.

The state has committed $13 million to the project through Pennsylvania's Operation Jump Start building program. The University plans to ask the state for $17 million more for the center, said Tuchi. Pitt has not yet begun raising its $20 million share of the project, he said.

Design work on the convocation center is scheduled to take one year, followed by 21 months of construction.

At a July 27 meeting, the trustees' executive committee approved a Pitt fiscal year 1995-96 budget of $830.7 million. (See budget story on this page.) The budget includes $242,880 for design work on the convocation center as well as design funds for two other Operation Jump Start projects: $345,000 for the Hillman Library addition and $274,120 for the Multi-purpose Academic Complex planned for a site bounded by Bouquet and Sennott streets and Forbes Avenue.

Also under the budget, Pitt will spend $120,000 in support costs for a $5 million, state-funded upgrade of campus safety systems.

Executive committee members did not discuss the Jump Start projects during the public part of their meeting. Nor were the projects discussed publicly by the trustees' budget committee, which approved the FY 1995-96 budget at a July 21 meeting.

However, budget committee members expressed concern about a 17 percent increase in the cost of a planned 100-bed dormitory on the Greensburg campus. Trustees voted in October to spend $2.9 million on the dorm, but the new price tag is $3.4 million.

At their July meetings, both the executive and budget committees approved spending the $3.4 million for the Greensburg dorm after hearing Pitt administrators explain that keeping the project to the original cost of $2.9 million would have required eliminating air-conditioning, parking and other features included in the original plan.

But trustee John Pelusi criticized the cost increase. "On something I consider a bread and butter construction project, you shouldn't have that much of an overrun," he said.

Following the executive committee meeting, Tuchi said that a planned building to house Pitt's new undergraduate College of Business Administration (CBA) will not be completed by fall 1997, as had been scheduled. (See CBA story this issue.)

— Bruce Steele

Filed under: Feature,Volume 28 Issue 1

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