The price tag for building the National Flight Interpretive Center at Paine Field may rise by $3.5 million because of changes to the project and a two-month delay in starting construction.
The now $21.7 million museum is expected to open next summer. It will be built on the Mukilteo side of the county airport, and officials say it will be a boon to tourism, attracting around 230,000 visitors a year.
The museum – which will by run by Seattle’s Museum of Flight – will include aircraft displays, the Boeing Co.’s popular tour center, a cafe and a theater.
Airport officials and others involved in the project, however, are asking the County Council to revisit the museum’s business plan and make changes to the budget. Airport officials gave the council an overview of proposed changes Tuesday.
“This is the first significant change to the business plan,” said Dave Waggoner, director of Snohomish County Airport-Paine Field.
An earlier change cut the size down to 60,870 square feet. But new modifications cover cost increases for road and frontage improvements and numerous changes to the museum itself, such as gallery exhibit lighting and an observation deck. Those changes total about $2.5 million.
Other pieces would add $1.2 million to the construction cost. Those elements include stained or colored concrete floors, a concrete patio outside the museum’s cafe, flagpoles, an illuminated ceiling in the cafe, and a contingency fund for construction during wet weather months. The contingency fund is $700,000, and airport officials have suggested using some of that for the museum’s grand opening next year if it isn’t needed during construction.
Although the changes add up to more than $3.7 million, the county expects to lower that by the roughly $223,000 in infrastructure improvements that will be funded by developers of the nearby Hilton Garden Inn.
Airport officials said the county will open bids for construction of the museum Tuesday. The County Council is expected to award the construction contract later this month.
Part of the reason for the cost increase is the delay in the start of construction.
Mukilteo filed a challenge July 12 to the environmental review the county had done for the museum. City officials raised concerns about traffic, pedestrian access, infrastructure improvements and other issues, and submitted paperwork about 3 inches in its appeal.
The city dropped its challenge July 29 and said its differences with the county had been resolved.
Bill Lewallen, deputy director of Paine Field, said the appeal pushed back the project. “That delayed our schedule by two months,” he said.
Major dirt work was pushed back to the first week of November, he said. “That’s the worst time of the year.”
A County Council vote has not yet been scheduled on the proposed changes, and officials are still considering ideas on how to pay for the $3.5 million increase.
Ideas for covering those costs include seeking grant funding, adding a 5 percent tax to museum tickets, tapping into the airport budget and selling naming rights to the museum.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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