Delays Could Cancel S.D. Conventions

Convention center officials warned for the first time Tuesday that construction delays at the $160-million bayside facility may force cancellation of conventions and consumer shows booked at the center from November through January.

Such a delay would not only mean a financial loss of at least $1 million to the city, but would also be a public-relations nightmare. Many of the 33,000 convention delegates expected in January have already booked hotel rooms.

Even worse, center officials fear that a stampede of cancellations could follow if conventioneers scheduled after January get the jitters.

Money for Overtime

All this came to a head Tuesday when the Convention Center Corp., the organization that will operate the facility on Harbor Drive, called on the San Diego Unified Port District, the agency building the center, to do everything possible, including spending money for overtime, to complete the building by Sept. 1.

But the Board of Port Commissioners, saying it already is doing all it can to get the building finished as soon as possible, instead approved a new construction schedule that calls on the center’s builders to be finished Oct. 31.

As a result, the Convention Center Corp.’s directors probably will have to decide at their meeting next month whether to start canceling the center’s first three consumer shows and six conventions booked between November and the end of January, said Tom Liegler, the center’s general manager.

The Convention Center Corp. had counted on at least a 90-day “shakedown” period to prepare the center before the first public event.

A position paper prepared by the Convention Center Corp. said it “is now faced with two very unpopular positions: encourage construction program acceleration or cancel events.”

At stake is not only the fairness of notifying conventions and consumer shows that the center may not be ready for them, but also “San Diego’s integrity,” said the usually effervescent Liegler, who Tuesday had a grim and worried demeanor.

Impression Important

“If we’re not able to host (the conventions), we have to tell them as soon as possible and help them find alternative sites,” Liegler said. “We want the building to get off to a good start and make a good impression. You never have a second chance to make a good impression. We don’t want to get off to another bad start.”

Delays have played a fundamental role in the history of the center, and Liegler and others have said in the past that San Diego has had to reassure professionals in the convention industry that the center and the city will be ready this time.

When excavation of the site began in 1985, construction was scheduled to be completed by late 1987. But the excavation was delayed several months, leading to a lawsuit involving the contractor, HuntCor Inc., and the Port District that has yet to be resolved. Then bids for the actual construction came in at least $22 million over budget, causing a delay of another year as the center was rebid, followed by the cancellation of millions of dollars in tentative bookings.

In response, the Port District hired a professional construction manager, Fluor Constructors, to help oversee the project and keep expenses and the timetable in line. A target date for completion was set for mid-1989.

Construction began in 1987 and, for the most part, has gone smoothly despite more delays, ranging from labor strife in Korea that interfered with the delivery of structural steel to unexpected difficulty in building the huge concrete fins that drape the front of the center.

As these delays have occurred, the completion date for the 1.75-million-square-foot structure, the largest public works project ever undertaken by a local government in San Diego County, has slipped, from April of this year to May to June, and now to the end of October.

Bill Rick, a port commissioner who heads a convention center construction committee, said Tuesday that the Port District, Fluor and the center’s builder, a joint venture of Tutor-Saliba and Perini Corp., have put together a new computer model of what is left to be done at the facility, which is 80% completed.

Using that model, and computing how long it will take to finish about 2,500 remaining details, they reached a completion date of Oct. 31, Rick said.

In addition, the Port District has given the contractor more financial incentives to finish the work on schedule. Under the new plan, Tutor-Saliba and Perini will, in essence, be paid more quickly by meeting monthly construction targets, the first of which occurred in January and was met. Port officials said the new incentives do not add money to the project. So far, the district has paid Tutor-Saliba and Perini about $122 million.

“This is as comfortable as we’re going to get. . . . This (new construction schedule) is as reliable as we believe we can make it,” Rick told his fellow commissioners. “I feel optimistic.”

Port District Chairman Louis Wolfsheimer, indirectly responding to Liegler’s plea, backed up Rick, saying, “When you consider this is the largest public-works project ever done in this county . . . I think it’s damn fine bringing it in pretty close to on time and on budget.”

The board, which took no action on the request from the Convention Center Corp., unanimously approved the new construction schedule and financial incentives. Without being specific, Rick said later that one reason the Port District doesn’t want to pay more for overtime involves legal questions between it and the contractor.

Wants 90 Days

After a morning meeting, the Convention Center Corp. said in its prepared statement that it is concerned “that dates are being based upon legal positioning between the Port and the contractor” and “that if more money is the answer to buying the time needed to ensure success of the facility once it’s completed, then the money issue should be addressed rather than legalities.”

Liegler says his organization needs 90 days to break in the convention center, a schedule he says is now down to 60 days if construction stays on track. In response, Rick said that, although no public events could be held at the center until Nov. 1, Liegler and his staff can begin moving into the facility in August and September to begin their preparations.

“I can understand his concerns,” Rick said. “His job is to sell it. . . . Mine is to get it ready.”

Liegler said that, if the consumer shows and conventions now booked from November through January are canceled, it will mean a loss of $945,812 in rental income alone. However, that income is considered one of the smallest components in the convention center’s revenue stream, behind items such as concessions.

Center officials also fear that, if they must rush to accommodate the consumer shows and conventions, they may not be ready as hosts. For example, initial problems with food or other services at the center could leave a bad impression, and news of such problems would spread throughout the convention industry.

“Yes,” Liegler said, “we’re down to a critical point.”