Wenatchee Convention Center: Expansion Progress, Budget Updates

Amid an ongoing facelift to the Wenatchee Convention Center, the City Council is amending its contract with the renovator, Absher Construction.

The council on Thursday approved an additional expenditure of nearly $50K. These are funds culled from the project's "existing contingency fund."

Altogether the expansion, a quarter of which has been completed, will cost $17.5M. When it's all said and done, the most storied venue of its kind in Wenatchee will be larger by 24,000 square feet.

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Absher has demolished the existing space and outfitted the Fuji/Gala breakout rooms with steel framing. The project is progressing under a tight timeline, with the goal of completing and occupying the space by the end of February. Construction began in May.

Thursday's meeting included some truth bombs - necessary changes that will have to be made, most notably the reinstallation of the center's flagpoles and geotechnical modifications due to incompatible soils discovered in the plaza area. These adjustments are to blame for a lag in progress. Construction is expected to finish six days behind schedule (possibly more, but these changes in and of themselves account for a six-day delay).

There have been other setbacks, as revealed by Wenatchee facilities manager Elisa Schafer.

"There were delays in receiving steel," Schafer said. "We are now tracking approximately three weeks behind our original substantial completion date of August 4. With the approval of this change order, the new substantial completion contract date is August 10. The contractor is working on remedies to better the end date."

On a brighter note, the project is within budget.

Click here to watch the meeting in its entirety.