GW released the long-awaited cost estimate for the Science and Engineering Complex Monday, attaching a price tag to one of the University’s most expensive building projects.
The eight-story combination office, lab and classroom space building will cost about $275 million, according to a news release. With the announcement of a cost estimate, the University’s highest governing body, The Board of Trustees, will vote on the plans during its October meeting.
The preliminary estimate, the release said, was based on information provided from Ballinger Company, Hickok Cole, Clark Construction and Boston Properties – the four companies involved with managing, contracting and designing different phases of the project.
This estimate is on par with the first cost estimate presented by the Faculty Senate in 2008. That report, said the center could cost between $180 million and $270 million without equipment. University spokeswoman Candace Smith said the new $275 million estimate does include equipment and furniture.
However, the price tag is far below the estimate Professor Anthony Yezer – who specializes in real estate economics and has testified in front of Congress with expert opinion on mortgages during the financial crisis – gave The Hatchet in March. Yezer said, after conducting two different cost estimations, a “conservative” cost estimate for the SEC is about $400 million.
The complex is set to include about 400,000 square feet above grade to “house teaching and research laboratories for faculty and students in GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science,” the news release said.
“The university plans to pay for the construction through fundraising, internal and/or external loans (debt service to be funded by payout associated with the Square 54 ground lease), and reimbursement for indirect costs provided under federal research grants,” the release said. “The parking garage will have a separate capital budget and will be paid for, over time, by users.”
Former Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Lehman – now a special adviser to President Steven Knapp on the SEC – did not return a request for comment.
