By Ben van der Meer
Downtown Sacramento's most expensive current construction project is now slated for completion in less than 18 months.
The Capitol Annex project is also $98 million over its original allocated budget, but state legislators on the committee overseeing the project said they don't plan to ask for more money.
"They'll do all the floors simultaneously," said state Sen. John Laird, vice chair of the Joint Committee on Rules at an update briefing on the project. Other steps, such as contract alignments and adjustments to landscaping, will also bring the costs down, he said, noting there's also $30 million in contingency funds that can be tapped.
On the eastern side of the State Capitol building, the 10-story, 525,000-square-foot Capitol Annex will replace aging, outdated offices for state legislative and executive branch staff with new office space.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown approved the project in 2017, and the state allocated $1.1 billion for it, though the original estimated cost was far less.
Laird and Rules Committee chair Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco said the project has come out of the ground during a highly inflationary period for construction projects. The state also had to contend with lawsuits opposing the project, at a cost of $15 million, she said.
Construction management company Gilbane's quarterly budget report on the project last month found it was possible the annex's construction price could've been nearly $300 million above the initial allocation.
"This is a large, complex public project that's been underway for a decade," Pacheco said. During that time, construction costs overall rose by 27%, she said.
Rising costs meant the project lost a planned visitors center, Laird said, though a future legislature could decide to add it.
He emphasized that the building will still be publicly accessible.
"It's a public building, and it's important that it be a building that meets that standard," he said, adding among the notable features people will notice when it opens is a skylight that frames the capitol building dome.
The annex is set to open in October 2027. Though they had hoped it could be sooner, Pacheco and Laird said completion then would be more ideal for moving offices, with the Legislature out of session and no looming election that would cause a shuffle in office assignments.
All litigation over the project has been resolved, Pacheco said.
While crews demolished the old annex and built the new one, legislators and their staff relocated to a "swing space" building a couple blocks south of the Capitol, at 10th and O streets.
Pacheco said she's not aware of the plan for that building once legislators move back to the annex.
Gilbane replaced MOCA Systems Inc. as construction manager for the project after MOCA's contract ran out, Pacheco said. Turner Construction Company is the project's general contractor.
