The City Council unanimously approved allocating an additional $5.8 million for the construction of the February One-Westin Hotel parking deck without a detailed list of what those costs were.

City Councilmember Zack Matheny asked that after the meeting he be provided with the details on how a $37 million project became a $42.8 million project.

Matheny was the only councilmember with a question about the additional costs.

According to a report detailing the cost overruns for the parking deck construction, the city had four change orders that totaled $905,860.  Broken down that is $609,000 for additional IT rooms, $143,000 for security fencing, $110,000 for parking office revisions and $42,000 for electric vehicle charging stations.

The bulk of the $5.8 million was for unforeseen site conditions. Most of the building site was a paved parking lot before construction commenced and one of the major issues discovered, once the pavement was removed, was the foundation of the old S&W cafeteria and the ruble from the demolition of the building. The cost of removing the foundation and ruble was $1.3 million. Unsuitable soil also had to be replaced at a cost of $608,000.  The city was responsible for 100 percent of those additional costs.

Making accommodations to provide Cone Denim an alley during construction cost an additional $100,000. Cone Denim has filed a lawsuit against the city for not complying with the agreement to provide access to the back of the building.

The other additional costs included additional general conditions and construction administration, shoring wall revisions, unsuitable soil in connection with the 101 South Elm building, telecom relocation sewer line installation, structure modifications and miscellaneous site issues.

The contract to build the parking deck was signed in 2019 and the original total cost to the city was estimated to be $30 million, so the cost has increased by about 43 percent.

The North Eugene Street parking deck, which is larger, was built for $29 million and opened in July 2021.