At first thought, renovating the Robert Crown Center in Evanston would be $18 million and cheaper than the $30 million estimate to rebuild it. But city leaders revealed at the City Council meeting Monday that construction costs are now projected at $52.9 million.
The city is planning to sign a contract agreement next month with an updated projected cost of $52.9 million, up from the $48.5 million estimate given in February, according to information provided by Asst. City Manager Erika Storlie.
The new figure factors in an extra $1.5 million for excavating what has been called “poor soils” beneath the project site, plus another $1.4 million buffer in case any other unforeseen costs arise.
Chicago-based Bulley and Andrews is the construction manager for the project.
Ald. Cecily Fleming, 9th Ward, called the new price tag “a lot of money,” adding that she wanted the City Council to discuss ways of “generating some revenue that will just be for Robert Crown.”
“I’m excited about the new building, but I’m not excited about bonding all the money, considering that our next conversation is going to be about cutting back on other capital improvements,” Fleming said Monday.
Also included in the latest cost estimate, planners tacked on an extra $500,000 in steel costs due to price hikes following President Donald Trump’s announced tariffs on steel and aluminum, Storlie said.
Fleming said that, “as much as we need Robert Crown, I’m concerned about getting us into a situation where…we’re not thinking about long-term projects.”
The center is a widely-used communty hub that currently features a hockey rink, gymnasium, several locker rooms, meeting and party space a concesssion stand and more. The Robert Crown Center also houses a licensed early childhood program, and has grass fields on the outside.
Evanston officials determined in 2013 that renovating the now 44-year-old facility would cost $18 million, while building a new center entirely would take about $30 million. City Council members approved a design for the new facility last September, and two months later they issued a request for proposals from building contractors.
Renderings were unveiled Monday of the new Robert Crown Center set to be built over the next two years, showing off a translucent white facade around a sprawling new public library branch, three outdoor turf fields and two hockey rinks.
One illustration shows a spacious front lobby with scattered chairs, merging into a library that’s “intended to be an open space, allowing in-and-out access and a multitude of uses,” Storlie said.
“It’s been referred to as not a quiet library, but an active and well-utilized library, so we’re looking forward to that concept coming to fruition,” she added.
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The beauty of the new building and its amenities notwithstanding, the city’s elected leaders continued to circle the discussion back to cost.
Mayor Steve Hagerty said that when the City Council discussed bond issuance earlier this year to help pay for the project, “there was a general consensus that…we don’t want to see a property tax increase.”
“So the alternative is that we find areas where we can reduce spending to take up this additional debt service,” Hagerty said Monday. “Or, [aldermen] could think about whether there’s a designated revenue source you would want to identify.”
Fleming suggested selling some city-owned parking lots help fill in the budget, an idea Ald. Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, said at the meeting she opposed.
Funding for the community center construction is being done through a public-private partnership, officials have previously said.
In February, the nonprofit Friends of Robert Crown extended their private fundraising goal from $10 million to $15 million to help bankroll the project. Now boasting $11.3 million in cash and pledges, the group is confident it can hit its goal by the end of 2018, secretary Peter Giangreco told the City Council on Monday.
In February 2017, Northwestern University committed to donating $1 million for the project.
“Northwestern is proud to make this investment to support the redevelopment of the Robert Crown Center. We look forward to working together to best serve our community,” the university’s Executive Vice President Nim Chinniah said in a news release announcing the funding.
Friends of the Robert Crown Center has extended invitations to a June 22 groundbreaking celebration, boasting that, as of Monday, the organization has already gotten committments for $150,000 of the $250,000 it hopes to raise that day, according to Giangreco.
Aldermen suggested Monday they would delay a decision on which infill material to use for the turf field that is to be part of the construction project until the Environmental Protection Agency publishes a long-awaited report on the potential health effects of “crumb rubber” made from shredded tires.
The rubber substance is used in thousands of turf fields around the country, including at Northwestern University’s training facility, but it’s found a growing number of detractors since 2014, when Seattle-area soccer coach said she noticed a spike in cancer diagnoses among soccer goalies who play on crumb rubber.
Turf manufacturers maintain that no study has found a conclusive link between the rubber pellets and cancer symptoms, but the substance has still kicked up controversy in towns like nearby Niles, where some parents have demanded that a public turf field have its infill replaced with a different substance.
Planners estimated that filling the new Robert Crown Center fields with crumb rubber would cost around $177,000, while more naturally-occurring infill materials could run more than $400,000.
The EPA launched its study on crumb rubber in 2016, and it’s expected to publish its results this year.
“We are not going to have kids and adults out there on any kind of material if the federal government comes out and says this is a toxic, cancer-causing material,” Hagerty said .
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Work on the fields is not scheduled to be completed until the summer after the building opens, so the City Council will “have some flexibility” to consider infill substance later this year, Storlie said.
