Designers underestimate Orange County Great Park building costs, firm says

The Orange County Great Park could be getting a great big markup.

An oversight firm contends that designers have underestimated the cost of building the public park by $377 million.

Bovis Lend Lease, a firm Irvine pays to independently review the project, said the 1,347-acre park would cost more than $1.6 billion to build, not the $1.2 billion the project's designers have claimed, according to a report approved Tuesday by the Irvine City Council.

The report cast more uncertainty over the ambitious effort to build a municipal park in the heart of Orange County.

According to Bovis, designers have not factored in rising costs and have excluded key elements from the budget, including the cost of removing hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of soil and demolishing buildings and runways.

Bovis also chided the team for overestimating some expenses, notably the "soft costs" related to designing the park. The report called the percentage of funds set aside for construction administration work "high" and the percentage for architecture and engineering "excessively high."

Among other issues, the review raised concerns that the design studio hadn't identified who was responsible for building utilities and infrastructure at the park, saying failure to do so "could have catastrophic impact upon the overall budget."

Great Park Chief Executive Michael Ellzey called the firm's estimate preliminary, saying that "over the next several months . . . we're going to work very closely together to reconcile that $377 million."

Sam Allevato, a spokesman for the Design Studio, said the group was "working with [Bovis] to correct any misunderstandings."

Irvine Mayor Beth Krom downplayed the importance of the report, calling it an internal, working document.

Although officials have acknowledged that plans for building the park have been hindered by the poor economy, they have placed no limits on spending and there is no timetable for the project's completion.

The park's board "has allowed the Design Studio to design creatively without the constraints of a maximum budget for the construction of the Great Park," according to a city report submitted after Bovis' review, which said Irvine might want to reconsider that approach as the park progresses.

tony.barboza@latimes.com