Boston Mayor Michelle Wu confirmed that the $172 million projection for taxpayer prices to rehab White Stadium got here from an inside metropolis doc, as revealed by her opponent Josh Kraft, however stated that quantity represents a “worst-case scenario.”
Wu stated Tuesday that whereas she expects the town’s prices for its half of the skilled ladies’s soccer stadium renovation mission to exceed its earlier $91 million estimate resulting from federal tariffs, design and development adjustments, it’s “unlikely” that taxpayer prices will attain $172 million.
“It is highly, highly unlikely that it will hit this sort of 172 number that’s been floated out there because that’s an absolute worst-case scenario,” Wu stated on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
However the mayor wouldn’t state how a lot she anticipates the town’s portion of the public-private mission will value, or present a ballpark estimate. She stated the town could have a clearer image of the ultimate finances after placing totally different features of development out to bid, which ought to start later this summer season.
“That will be the next point, where the budget is finalized based on what the market actually is, what the costs are,” Wu stated. “The price of steel has gone up significantly since we started this process because of tariffs. Other construction costs have escalated with the uncertainty in the economy.”
Metropolis prices for the public-private rehab of White Stadium have soared because it was first proposed two years in the past. Metropolis officers initially put its finances for the mission at $10.5 million two years in the past, with its for–revenue accomplice Boston Unity Soccer Companions kicking in $30 million.
The taxpayer hit was later revealed to be $50 million, with Boston Unity set to match that quantity early final 12 months. The mission was accepted by the Boston planning board at that $50 million metropolis share in July of final 12 months.
Town’s newest finances projection was almost double that quantity, at $91 million, bringing the entire value of the rehab plan to roughly $200 million. The $91 million determine was revealed throughout a gathering of the town’s below-the-radar public amenities fee final November — somewhat than from the mayor’s workplace.
Kraft stated Monday exterior a demolished White Stadium that the town had revised its estimated finances for the controversial mission once more, to $172 million, with out telling taxpayers.
“From the outset, the mayor has tried to keep everything about this project a secret,” Kraft stated.
Wu pushed again Tuesday on the notion that, as she put it, “there’s a secret number that everyone’s been hiding.”
The mayor stated her workforce did some digging for the supply of the $172 million finances doc since Kraft stated, when requested by reporters, that it got here from Metropolis Corridor insiders, with out disclosing any names.
The “secret document” he referenced was additionally offered to the mayor’s workforce by an unnamed journalist, Wu stated.
She stated it was a screenshot of somebody’s pc that had been despatched round as if it was the “actual real budget” for the mission. Her workforce was in a position to observe it down, and found that it was a doc that was in somebody’s information about White Stadium, the mayor stated.
The doc included figures that have been based mostly on “disaster” and “scenario planning,” Wu stated, as a part of a contingency finances with the $172 million value.
“That particular document that it seems was accessed by someone who was not on the project and probably shouldn’t have been looking at it, and then somehow got to a campaign … has never been used as a basis for conversations or costs,” Wu stated. “That is not a real number. That is not the real cost.”
Wu additionally took a swipe at Kraft, saying that it was “harmful,” “disrespectful,” and “offensive” for him to make assertions that lead residents to consider that they shouldn’t belief info on prices which might be coming from “official city channels.”
“The residents of Boston deserve better in terms of real facts, real information and being able to have that context,” Wu stated.
The Kraft marketing campaign responded Tuesday by referencing remarks Kraft made a day earlier, when he pressed for the mayor to disclose the town’s estimated value for the mission, if it differed from the $172 million determine referenced within the inside doc.
“Mayor Wu, you’ve been running the least transparent City Hall in generations,” Kraft stated Monday. “If your figures are different, then you need to stop hiding the ball and tell taxpayers what the actual cost is going to be.”
Wu has touted the mission as a win for Boston Public Faculties student-athletes, who will share use of a rebuilt White Stadium with Boston Legacy FC, the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League growth workforce owned by Boston Unity Soccer Companions.
Boston Legacy, which is below a lease settlement with the town and is on the hook for greater than $100 million, stated it stays dedicated to “taking on over half the the total cost” of the mission and long-term upkeep, regardless of the potential for rising prices cited by the mayor, workforce spokesperson Steph Yang stated on Tuesday.
The personal soccer group wouldn’t reveal its newest finances projection.
The mission has divided the neighborhood and led to a neighborhood lawsuit, with issues centering on escalating prices and a for-profit use of public parkland. The courts dominated in favor of the town in April, however the plaintiffs, preferring a high-school solely stadium rehab, have since appealed.
Challenge delays have pushed Boston Legacy’s 2026 inaugural season dwelling video games from Franklin Park’s White Stadium to Gillette Stadium, owned by Kraft’s father, Robert Kraft, the billionaire proprietor of the New England Patriots.
When the town’s projected finances was revealed to have grown to $91 million final 12 months, Wu stated the associated fee enhance was pushed by design adjustments knowledgeable by neighborhood enter, and that there may very well be additional value overruns.
The Metropolis Council is about to vote on the town’s five-year capital plan, which has the White Stadium rehab budgeted at $91 million, later this month. Councilor Ed Flynn on Tuesday joined Kraft in calling for higher readability on the mission’s value.
“The residents of Boston deserve to know how much this project will now cost,” Flynn stated in a press release. “In the interest of transparency and fiscal responsibility, the Wu administration must address cost overruns and immediately release to the public all financial documents relating to cost overruns of this project. Taxpayers deserve to know the truth.”
