Work on Capitol complex starts up
Ten months after groundbreaking, dirt actually being moved for Bush Building.
State leaders made speeches and lined up to scoop ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt last September during the official groundbreaking for a decades-in-the-making project to build new government office buildings, parking garages and a pedestrian-friendly green space along Congress Avenue north of the Capitol.
About 10 months and little visible progress later, actual construction of the $581 million complex finally is underway.
The Texas Facilities Commission said excavation began last week at 1801 Congress Ave. — a former parking lot across from the Bullock Texas State History Museum that’s the future site of a 14-story, 603,000-square-foot building to be named the George H.W. Bush State Office Building in honor of
the former president.
Completion of the building and other elements of the complex was slated for late 2021 at the time of the September groundbreaking ceremony.
But the facilities commission — which underwent upheaval in its top executive ranks in January — has pushed the date to May 2022. The work already is about four months behind even the revised schedule, although the commission said it will catch up now that excavation has begun.
The commission expects “to make up that (fourmonth) delay over the next four years,” said John Raff, interim executive director of the agency that manages state buildings and construction.
Raff, who was named the Texas Facilities Commission’s interim leader in January after executive director Harvey Hilderbran was fired by the agency’s board, said the management change “did not impact the project schedule.”
Instead, Raff cited a number of other factors for the slow start, including a decision to change the company overseeing excavation and utility relocation to JE Dunn Construction from Zachry Construction. He also described the initial revision to the schedule as part of the routine refinement that comes with a huge endeavor.
But some Austin-area lawmakers who have advocated for the project and who attended the September groundbreaking called the early delays potentially troubling, and they said they’ll be watching closely to try to ensure they aren’t the start of a pattern as the facilities commission attempts to move forward in the wake of its management shake-up.
Hilderbran was ousted after a report by the Texas Tribune documenting internal dysfunction at the agency under his leadership.
State Sen. Kirk Watson — a former mayor of Austin — said expectations for the Capitol complex “need to be met” despite what he termed the “turmoil” at the facilities commission.
“There ought to be some concern that the project got started later than expected,” said Watson, D-Austin. The facilities commission “must be vigilant because there’s a lot riding on the agency’s ability to deliver this historic project in a timely manner and on budget.”
State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said she took her concerns to members of Gov. Greg Abbott’s staff, as well as to other officials with the facilities commission, following Hilderbran’s ouster.
She said she received assurances that the quick appointment of new leadership already familiar with the project would keep it within budget and delays to a minimum. Raff served as deputy executive director of the facilities commission before being elevated to lead the agency on an interim basis.
“This is a large, complicated endeavor that will have significance for generations to come, and requires the commissioners and Legislature remain focused on ensuring it is responsibly managed on behalf of the state’s taxpayers and the people who call Austin home,” Howard said.
The initial, $581 million phase of the complex includes two new state office buildings, above- and belowground parking and a pedestrian-friendly green space stretching along what is now Congress Avenue from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to 16th Street.
A second, $357 million phase of the project is on the drawing board but has not yet been funded by the Legislature. It would include two more state office buildings, additional parking and completion of the so-called “Texas Mall” promenade to 15th Street.
The aim of both phases is to consolidate state employees in state-owned buildings and eventually save a combined $22.6 million a year that taxpayers currently spend to lease more than 1.1 million square feet of private office space in the Austin area. Once complete, the first phase will save about $15.1 million annually in leasing expenses, the Texas Facilities Commission has estimated.
Watson and other advocates for the plan say they also view it as a means of transforming the area immediately north of the Capitol into an attraction.
“When it’s completed, I expect we’ll have an open and inviting public space that better serves state employees as well as the community,” Watson said. “Those expectations are shared by a lot of people and, regardless of the turmoil at (the facilities commission), those expectations need to be met.”
Since the 1940s, planners in state government have envisioned a leafy civic space among state office buildings in the blocks north of the Capitol. Contact Bob Sechler at 512-445-3645.