EXCLUSIVE: A New CFPB Scandal – Cost Overruns for It’s New Lux Headquarters
Richard Pollock on January 7, 2018
Renovation costs for the brand new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters have skyrocketed, posting 25 percent in cost overruns — significantly above the original budget set by the General Services Administration, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.
Original cost estimates for the CFPB’s renovation were estimated at $55 million, but the bureau ran up the proposed cost to $216 million. The Federal Reserve Inspector General rejected the proposal in 2014, saying there was no “sound basis†for the figure.
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CFPB’s employees now come to work in a building that features many high-end touches, including lounge seats for their plaza deck, sunken garden areas, male and female fitness rooms, and credenzas with quartz surfaces and premium drywall. The CFPB spent $88,000 for bike racks and parking striping in the garage, according to the the GSA’s “Construction Progress Report†dated June 30, 2017.
There were other reasons for cost overruns, according to the report. Revising the original office layout cost nearly $1 million and a new mandatory wage increase for union labor under the Davis Beacon Act added an extra $240,000. Other unstated garage “upgrades†increased costs by an extra $1.9 million.
But the project’s costs were reduced by $1.1 million when GSA discarded a proposed childhood playground on the roof.
The $124 million figure translates to about $416 per square foot for the 303,000 square foot, six-flight office building. That cost makes the CFPB building among the top 10 most expensive office buildings in Washington, D.C., for 2016 to 2017, according to the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership, a public-private partnership with the District government.
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http://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2018/01/07/130912/