Alabama’s new statehouse could cost $325 million, says RSA CEO
The head of the agency building Alabama’s new statehouse said Tuesday he expects the project to cost up to $325 million.
Speaking at a meeting of the Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Control, Retirement Systems of Alabama CEO David Bronner said that construction costs have been approved for up to $350 million, but he wants to keep it under that amount.
“We’re trying to get it right around the $300 to $325 (million) number, but my point was I can’t control Mother Nature,” said Bronner after the meeting to reporters.
The building will replace the current statehouse, the former Highway Department building, which has been occupied by the Alabama Legislature since 1986. The structure faces mold and flooding issues and has about $100 million in deferred maintenance costs. The building has also been criticized for not being accessible to the public; the structure lacks a central gallery, and hallways in the building are often crowded with lobbyists and spectators.
“If the highway department moves out of the building because it’s so bad, that should tell you something,” said Bronner after the meeting.
The Legislature authorized construction of the new statehouse earlier this year. RSA is overseeing the building process.When completed, the building will be nation’s first completely new statehouse since Florida completed its Capitol Complex in 1977.
Site work on the new statehouse, located in what used to be a parking lot behind the current building, began in November.
A packet distributed at Tuesday’s meeting said that the RSA’s scope of work does not include demolition of the current statehouse; the building of a parking deck next to the Folsom Administration Building nearby or the greenspace expected to be placed on the site of the current statehouse.
Bronner said he expects those projects to take place after the new statehouse is complete.
“I wanted to separate the project,” he said. “I didn’t want us to get confused into landscaping.”
The RSA CEO said after the meeting that he expects the project to be completed in 2025 or 2026.
“I’m going to push as hard as I can,” he said.
The packet said that designers expect foundation work to begin shortly after the first of the year.
The fifth floor of the building will have both chambers facing a grand entry, reminiscent of Alabama State Capitol, the home of the Legislature from 1851 to 1985, where the House and Senate chambers faced each other.
The second floor will have committee rooms organized around a central corridor.
Bronner said during the meeting that the design is mimicked off of Virginia. Bronner said one of their architectural firms that is doing both Virginia and Minnesota.
Trait Thompson, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, previously told the Alabama Reflector that most states’ designs of statehouses are based off of Thomas’s Jefferson’s Greco-Roman design of the Virginia building. In October, Virginia opened a building adjacent to its capitol, with offices and committee rooms.
The state will repay RSA the cost of construction, along with 8% interest.
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama’s new statehouse could cost $325 million, says RSA CEO
