May 1, 2003
Center Construction Moves Ahead Despite Shortfall
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Though Irvine's Samueli Jewish Campus is $2 million short of $20 million required to finish a community building, the project's supporters are moving ahead to avoid the potential costs of delay.
Permits for the 123,000-square-foot building adjacent to Tarbut V'Torah Community Day School were issued in March.
"We're moving ahead as originally scheduled," said Ralph Stern, of Tustin, who is leading fundraising. In a communitywide appeal in May 2002, he promised a fiscally conservative stance: construction would start when financial goals were met.
"If it weren't for potentially inflationary pressure, we wouldn't have started," he said last month.
Waiting for the till to fill would incur extra costs from disbanding the building's construction team, an expected hike in steel prices and bid escalation due to a predicted surge of postwar construction, Stern said. Known costs alone amounted to $500,000, said Irving M. Chase, of Irvine, a member of the capital campaign committee.
"This is one way to protect the bids we had," Stern said.
Adequate funds have been pledged for the $6.5 million first phase, which includes grading, utilities, a foundation and steel-support structure. Stern hopes to raise the remainder by July, as the initial construction nears completion.
An anonymous donor and Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli provided two-thirds of the project's total $60 million cost. Jewish agencies now in Costa Mesa anticipate relocating next spring.
