Boston Mayor Michelle Wu mentioned final month that town would have a clearer sense of ultimate taxpayer prices for its public-private plan to rehab White Stadium this summer time, however is now saying that determine will materialize by the tip of the yr.
The mayor’s obvious about-face got here Tuesday throughout a short radio interview, when she was requested if she might present an up to date estimate of how a lot the skilled soccer rehab of Franklin Park’s White Stadium would value taxpayers, in gentle of her prior remarks that the value would probably exceed $91 million.
“There’s always some level of cost escalation,” Wu mentioned Tuesday on WBUR’s Morning Version. “Unfortunately, in major construction projects, we end up putting out bids and whatever the price in the market is at the moment is what the city pays for any construction project.”
Town’s half of the roughly $200 million mission practically doubled, from $50 million to $91 million, on the finish of final yr. An inside metropolis doc revealed by Wu’s principal mayoral opponent Josh Kraft final month confirmed the price to taxpayers was projected to climb as excessive as $172 million, a possible Wu acknowledged however described as a “worst-case scenario” on the time.
Final month, Wu mentioned town would have a transparent image of what the ultimate price range could be after placing completely different facets of building out to bid, which she anticipated to start later this summer time. She doubled down on that timeline earlier this month, saying on a radio program that “we should know in a few weeks.”
However Wu backed off that timeline on Tuesday. She mentioned building is underway and a few bids have gone out the door, with others anticipated to be launched within the fall. The mayor, when requested, didn’t present an up to date value estimate for the mission, based mostly on building bids which have already gone out.
So far as when remaining prices would materialize, Wu would solely say, “Later this calendar year, the bids should all be out the door.”
“We are seeing cost escalation, just in terms of the cost of steel, for example,” Wu mentioned, referring to federal tariff impacts. “There’s not a great way to say this is going to be the exact number, because we’re subject to public procurement laws and the bids that come in.”
Challenge opponents — a few of whom have sued town and the for-profit group that owns the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League staff set to share use of White Stadium with Boston Public Colleges student-athletes in 2027 — shortly seized onto the mayor’s up to date timeline.
“The city’s timeline doesn’t add up,” Dorchester resident Jessica Spruill mentioned in a press release. “City officials were scheduled to receive millions of dollars in construction bids for the White Stadium project by this month. They should be able to tell us exactly how much the project will cost.”
The so-called Franklin Park Defenders favor a scaled-down high-school-only stadium rehab that they are saying may very well be finished at a fraction of the price, or $29 million. Challenge delays have led the NWSL staff, the Boston Legacy, to dealer a cope with the Kraft Group to play their inaugural season at Gillette Stadium subsequent spring, quite than White Stadium as initially deliberate.
The Kraft Group is owned by Robert Kraft, the billionaire New England Patriots proprietor and father of Josh Kraft, a mayoral candidate who opposes the White Stadium professional soccer plan, which has been championed by Mayor Wu.
“Boston residents deserve to know how much of the Boston Public Schools budget will be spent to build a massive professional sports complex for the benefit of private investors — before steel and concrete are in the ground,” Spruill mentioned. “City officials need to make the construction bids they’ve received public, so that residents can know just how far over-budget the White Stadium project is.”
