Los Angeles County Under Fire for Project Cost Estimate

Los Angeles County’s $200 million purchase of the Gas Company Tower last year as a new home for government offices is coming under fire after critics claim the county inflated what it would have cost to stay in its old digs to justify the tower purchase and potentially set up the historic building for demolition.

At the time of the purchase, the county said it would have cost $700 million for seismic retrofitting at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which houses the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the offices of several county departments. It turns out that figure is more than half a billion dollars higher than the cost of a typical retrofit for a building of that size, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A recent analysis by experts cited by the Times estimates that the Hahn building could be brought up to code for less than $150 million using common techniques applied in retrofitting other historic Los Angeles structures. Dan Rosenfeld, a developer and preservationist who is leading a campaign to halt what some see as a quiet setup for the Hahn Hall’s eventual demolition, told the Times that the $700 million estimate relied on one of the most expensive methods of earthquake retrofitting.

Officials “didn’t just put their thumb on the scale” to show retrofitting was too costly and that buying the Gas Company Tower was the best option, Rosenfeld said. “They jumped on it with both feet.”

In response, Joseph Nicchitta, acting chief executive of Los Angeles County, said “the county considered a comprehensive range of seismic options” besides the most expensive ones, claiming the $700 million estimate was “the result of a competitively procured process.” County officials “conferred with the Department of Public Works on the various approaches [for retrofitting]” that critics like Rosenfeld suggested, but the department “maintains its assessments regarding the cost, scope and budget of the retrofit project.”

Los Angeles County says there are no current plans to demolish the Hahn Hall, though L.A. County supervisor Janice Hahn — the daughter of the building’s namesake — confirmed that razing much of the structure has been suggested in multiple staff meetings.

“We are convinced that any outside, independent review would arrive at the same conclusions that we did: The building can and should be saved,” Rosenfeld said. “Who wouldn’t want to move from the third floor to the 50th floor of the best building in town? But who benefits? Not the public.”— Chris Malone Méndez