By Adam Swift
The estimated costs of the options for building a new high school on the current site range from $550 million to $557 million.
However, due to a revised funding formula from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), the city could see a higher reimbursement rate for this project as opposed to the one that was proposed for the Wonderland site.
Also coming into play for the cost and schedule of the project are the replacement of a large culvert system that runs through the high school property, and the need to provide temporary parking at Ambrose Field for the duration of the construction.
Brian Dakin, the senior project manager from Leftfield, was before the City Council on Monday night to update it on those and other aspects of the high school building project.
After the council voted not to go forward with a new high school project at Wonderland early this year, the School Building Committee and Leftfield, the owner’s project manager, regrouped to look at building on the current high school site.
Dakin said the project is currently in the preferred schematic report phase, with the goal of submitting a preferred option to the MSBA by Feb. 28 of next year. The three new options under consideration are for four-, five-, and six-story school buildings on the current high school site. The projects would require building on Erricola Park fields at the high school site, and then rebuilding the fields when the project is completed.
Dakin said the costs and schedules he presented to the council Monday night are dependent on the city project to replace the large culvert system that runs through the high school property.
If the high school construction and city culvert projects line up, Dakin said the three building options on the table would essentially have the same schedule, with the new school ready for occupancy by August of 2028 and the fields replaced by the summer of 2029.
“One of the challenges we have worked on last month, this month, and will be working on into next month is a topic we’ve talked about before, the culvert,” said Dakin. “There is a big assumption baked into all these schedules that that process and project can get far enough along that whatever needs to happen underground between School Street and the American Legion Highway is designed and ready to be implemented in 2025 and 2026. That right now is not a sure thing.”
Another variable is the need for parking at Ambrose Field. Dakin said the temporary parking at the field could accommodate either the construction parking, or the displaced teacher and student parking, and that there still is work to do to accommodate all parking needs while construction is ongoing.
The city will also have to determine if it wants to build a new school administration building on the property as part of the proposed project, or build it off site as part of a future project.
On the positive side, Dakin said the change in the MSBA formula means Revere will likely see a higher percentage of reimbursement for the project from the state. That real reimbursement rate for the project could jump from the high 30 percent range expected for the Wonderland project to the high 40 percent range.
“These … result in a much better grant than we were seeing at any other part of this process,” said Dakin.
The total estimated costs for the project range from $550.2 million for the proposed four-story building to $557 for a six-story building. With the expected reimbursement from the MSBA, Dakin said the cost to Revere for the project would range from $310 million to $317 million.
“We can’t stand by these schedules and budgets, we really need to understand when that (culvert) project is going to be ready to go,” said Dakin. “We do have designs for the options, we have schedules, we have budgets, and we are hoping that in advance of the Feb. 28 deadline that we will arrive at a new preferred option and proceed into a schematic design that will run through next July and August.”
At that point, the design team would then present final schematic design costs and there would need to be a vote to authorize the borrowing of funds for the project.
Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri, who supported the proposal to build at Wonderland, noted that the costs for the project continue to escalate, and now the city is looking to take another park offline with the need for temporary parking at the Ambrose fields.
“I think we opened up a can and this is looking disastrous,” said Silvestri.
Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro said he wanted to address “the elephant in the room,” which is the discussion around the city about a possible push to move the project back to the Wonderland property.
“There’s going to be a new council, and I can’t speak for anybody, but if that ever did happen, my number one most important question is will the MSBA have our back if that happens?” Cogliandro asked.
Dakin said he couldn’t speak for the MSBA, but expected that it would support the city, since it has been understanding and accommodating about the challenges Revere faces as an urban school district with a minimum of space for building.
Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto, a staunch opponent of building on the Wonderland site, said he wanted to remind everyone that building on Wonderland could potentially take as much as $1.2 billion off the city’s tax rolls over the coming 50 years.
“Over my dead body it goes back to Wonderland,” said Zambuto. “I think the taxpayers spoke very strongly about this in the last election.”
Silvestri questioned the $1.2 billion in revenue Zambuto has said the Wonderland site would bring in for the city, calling it an outlandish number.
“The 875 apartments that were just approved in Lynn are going to bring in $125 million over the course of 30 years,” said Silvestri. “So tell me how are we getting to $1.2 billion? How many apartments is that going to be?”
Zambuto said his assumption was based on the amount of money the Suffolk Downs development is expected to bring into the city.
“I guarantee it’s worth at least half as much as the Suffolk Downs property,” said Zambuto. “That’s $23.5 million a year in revenue times 50 years for the life of a high school is $1.2 billion.”
