BART criticized for acquiring $125 million police HQ building despite fiscal cliff
Pieter Bruegel: Construction of the Tower of Babel. Image in Public Domain
Bay Area Rapid Transit board directors Debora Allen and Liz Ames spoke with the Epoch Times on Tuesday to break down BART's latest controversial decision: purchasing a $26M Oakland building (which needs near $100M in renovations) for its police headquarters, while the agency's deficit is a whopping $264M/yr from 2028 on. Allen (finance expert) and Ames (civil engineer) had advised BART instead upgrade its existing infrastructure, but the others voted to demolish it.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) board of directors recently approved the purchase of a building in Oakland for its police headquarters, with renovation and seismic upgrades potentially pushing the price to more than $125 million when the agency is faced with approximately $300 million in annual operating deficits and unfunded capital needs of nearly $16 billion over the next 10 years.
The agency made the decision after discussions regarding renovating its current location on 8th Street in the Lake Merritt area of Oakland, where it has been since 2017, was dismissed.
“Total costs of the proposed building will exceed $1,000 per square foot when complete, for a 42-year-old structure that will still be a 42-year-old structure when upgrades are complete,” BART Director Debora Allen told The Epoch Times Dec. 1. “The board’s approval … represents a continuation of poor decision making I have witnessed from the seven-member majority of this nine-member board over the last seven years.”
BART is in the process of purchasing its new location, currently owned by Kaiser Permanente, at approximately $245 per square foot—with renovations expected to increase costs by 307 percent.
The agency is agreeing to buy the new 105,000-square-foot property with a five-story building built in 1982 located downtown at 2000 Broadway, near Chinatown, for approximately $26 million—with estimates of nearly $100 million for retrofitting and facility upgrades to accommodate the agency’s police headquarters. …
[BART Director Liz] Ames urged the board to prioritize the $20 billion in infrastructure needs facing the agency and said the group has a fiduciary duty to thoroughly investigate cost savings opportunities on all proposals.
“We have a moral commitment to invest in our existing infrastructure,” she said during the board meeting. “We have an immense backlog, and we’re using … money to finance a new facility, but we never looked at rolling back the [project] or using the [existing] building as an option.”
Such proposals should be clearly outlined for public review, with accurate estimates and cost projections included, she said.
“I wanted to see these options to show the public we did our due diligence,” Ms. Ames told fellow directors. “I don’t see how the public is going to gain confidence in our managing of our finances.” …
“I fully support the operations and expansion of the operations of our BART police department. However, we must make decisions based in the reality of BART’s current death spiral financial picture for both operating and long-term capital needs,” [BART Director Debora] Allen told The Epoch Times. “On one hand, we see BART’s scarce financial resources being diverted to yet another real estate re-development deal by this board; on the other hand, we have BART conducting an enormous PR campaign to convince legislators and taxpayers that BART needs another $300 million annually just to fill its ongoing transit operating deficits, in perpetuity.”
This article originally appeared in the Epoch Times. Read the whole thing here.
Related:
BART's impending fiscal cliff makes SJ extensions even more ridiculous
Massive Caltrain overspending expected; BART eager to put bond on upcoming ballots
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
Opp Now enthusiastically welcomes smart, thoughtful, fair-minded, well-written comments from our readers. But be advised: we have zero interest in posting rants, ad hominems, poorly-argued screeds, transparently partisan yack, or the hateful name-calling often seen on other local websites. So if you've got a great idea that will add to the conversation, please send it in. If you're trolling or shilling for a candidate or initiative, forget it.