USOC project facing more bad news: cost overruns
Construction on the U.S. Olympic Committee's new headquarters building in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs isn't just behind schedule.
The beleaguered project had racked up at least $1.3 million in cost overruns as of a month ago, according to e-mails obtained under a Colorado Open Records Act request.
And it gets worse.
The remodeling of an old Colorado Springs Utilities building near America the Beautiful Park, which the Olympic-themed national governing bodies plan to use for offices, is behind schedule and grappling with cost overruns, too, documents indicate
Kurt Kaltenbacher, president of Copestone, the general contractor on the NGB building, expressed frustration about the delays in a Feb. 25 e-mail to City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft.
Kaltenbacher laid most of the blame on the developer, LandCo Equity Partners, and its chairman, Ray Marshall.
"Contrary to Gazette quotes from Ray Marshall that those projects are under control, we are currently two months behind schedule and counting because LandCo has refused to even discuss four primary change orders required and approved by USOC as well as required by the Building Dept.," he wrote.
Kaltenbacher did not return a call for comment Tuesday.
Less than two weeks later, on March 9, Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson apparently met with representatives from Copestone, LandCo and the USOC to talk about the NGB building.
At that point, the original budget of $3 million had increased to $3.2 million - and was climbing.
Additional items under consideration included $200,000 for exterior signage and $100,000 for wrought-iron fencing, documents indicate.
On March 12, the group met again and identified "agreed-upon savings" and "possible savings" that brought the NGB budget back down to about $3 million.
Tensions, however, exploded the next day.
Anderson wrote an e-mail to Marshall at 8:45 a.m., telling him that change orders involving a fire-sprinkler system needed to be authorized immediately or "the project budget is going to be blown again due to unnecessary, and avoidable, project delays."
The e-mail triggered a stinging response from Marshall.
"We told EVERYONE 3 months ago that the budget was blown and no one listened," Marshall wrote. "Mike - this is getting old."
Steve Long, an attorney for Marshall, was unavailable for comment.
The $1.3 million in cost overruns on the headquarters building was revealed in a March 17 e-mail written by Mayor Lionel Rivera.
Rivera did not return calls.
USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel declined to comment, citing a suit filed against the city and the USOC by LandCo. LandCo is accusing the city and the USOC of failing to hold up their end of a year-old agreement designed to keep the USOC here for the next 25 years.
The lawsuit was the topic of a closed-door City Council meeting Monday, the second time in about a month.
Councilman Bernie Herpin said City Attorney Pat Kelly explicitly told council members to keep the discussions secret.
The city is facing "a lot of challenges" with the USOC agreement, Herpin said.
"But I feel that we'll make it work," he added.
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