Archdiocese Now Puts Cost of Cathedral at $163 Million

The proposed new downtown Roman Catholic cathedral now has a price tag of $163 million, according to officials of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who announced Thursday that the Walt Disney Co. has joined the lengthy list of philanthropists, foundations and prominent Catholics donating funds to help pay for the project.

At a news conference, officials and volunteers with the archdiocese released a list of nearly 100 donors who have offered cash or pledges tallying $110.5 million.

No specific amounts were listed for individual donors, and officials declined to say how much the Disney Co. and others have contributed. However they said that the two founding donations--a total of $35 million from the Dan Murphy Foundation and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation--remain the largest contributions to date for the construction project.

The list of donors includes names such as those of Betsy Bloomingdale, whose in-laws founded the upscale department store chain; former Dodger owner and current Chairman Peter O’Malley; and comedian Bob Hope, who was among the 67 supporters of the Catholic Church awarded papal knighthoods earlier this year.

Also listed were Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, former state Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas and entertainment executive Roy E. Disney and his wife, Patty, who also made a personal donation of $5 million to help build the Walt Disney Concert Hall. That building will be just a stone’s throw from Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, which is planned for a site on Temple Street between Grand Avenue and Hill Street. Disney also was among those recently given the honorary title Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great.

Phyllis Hennigan, who co-chairs the cathedral development effort, said several of the donors on the list gave $1 million or more, but she added: “Gifts of all sizes are needed, and they’re very much appreciated . . . at every level.”

She and others stressed that the project would be funded entirely through private donations.

John McNicholas, attorney for the archdiocese, denied a magazine report that money from a deal with a large Louisiana-based funeral home would be used to help build the cathedral.

“Absolutely not,” said McNicholas, responding to the assertion made in U.S. News & World Report.

Many of the donors listed Thursday are among the area’s most prominent Catholics. But Hennigan said the fund-raising effort would be broadened to include non-Catholics as well.

“We have 11 committees working on the project right now to reach out to the full community,” she said.

The money will be needed to cover project costs that are now pegged at $163.2 million, including fees, furnishings and fixtures. Officials described this as the “final budget” and the current figure as the grand total.

But the cost of the project has been a moving target almost from the beginning.

In an interview earlier this month, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who was in Rome on Thursday, said an “absolute cap” of $102 million had been placed on construction costs, not including fees and other unknowns.

“We will build to the cap,” he said at that time. “The cap rules.”

On Thursday, similar construction costs were pegged at $107 million and the total for construction, including site work, security, and off-site utilities and improvements, was placed at $110 million.

When the project started, in early 1995, officials said it would cost $45 million. At that point, the project included a cathedral that could seat 2,400, an 800-seat conference center, and open-air plaza and two levels of underground parking all on the site of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral.

The current project includes a cathedral that will seat 3,000, a meditation garden, a bell tower, a 2.5-acre plaza, a 46,000-square-foot conference center, a three-level underground garage and a two-story rectory.

Msgr. Terrance Fleming, the vicar general who acts as Mahony’s deputy, said much of the cost increase is the result of a redesign of the cathedral plaza, nearly doubling the size of the conference center, adding more parking and using a more expensive but sturdier architectural concrete.

Earlier in the day, the archdiocese won another round in a lawsuit filed by two groups, including one headed by a Native American who has said she would like to see the project stopped.

Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien denied a request for a preliminary injunction that could have halted archeological testing that began at the site earlier this week. Both sides will return to court in May.