A citizens group on Tuesday convinced Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to try to find $2 million to restore design elements taken out of the new courthouse to keep it in budget.
“We’ll have to roll up our sleeves and find a couple of million dollars to deliver this,” Hickenlooper told the group during a meeting in his office.
The citizens successfully persuaded the mayor to delay initial consideration at the City Council on Monday of a $20.75 million add-on to the construction contract for the justice center complex, which includes a new jail and a new courthouse.
Under that revision, the total cost of the project would rise to $286.3 million, above the original budget of $214 million. So far the city has been able to absorb that cost increase through interest earnings and premiums from the sale of bonds and other measures. But the city also trimmed some design elements to keep costs from rising even higher.
There’s a sense of urgency to the project because multi-year construction projects are ending up 30 percent to 40 percent over budget, the mayor said during Tuesday’s meeting with the citizens group.
He said he’ll still try to get the contract amendments before the council by next Monday to keep the project on track and will try to raise the extra money this week.
The citizens had raised concerns about the elimination of some design elements. Gone was a west elevation illuminated curtain wall blade expected to cost $274,000. The city also decided to use gray concrete pavers instead of granite ones, shaving another $108,842 in costs.
Numerous other design changes, including doing away with wood veneer walls in the courtrooms, concerned many citizens living in the Golden Triangle area near the new justice center.
“We want to figure out how to make this a signature building,” said Dennis Humphries, an architect and member of the citizens committee, during the meeting with the mayor.
The mayor said naming rights for portions of the justice center may be one way of raising extra money. He said he would also start making calls to see if he could raise funds privately. He added the city also will see whether it can shift cost savings from other city projects to the new courthouse.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
