Summary: Since GAO's last report on the new convention center in the District of Columbia, the Washington Convention Center Authority has revised its estimates for the predevelopment and construction costs. These estimates now total about $480 million, or $81 million less than the $561 million that GAO last reported. (See GAO/AIMD-96-44R, Feb., 1996.) In addition, the authority has established a contingency amount of about $70 million, which, if needed, would raise the estimated cost of the project to $550 million--or only slightly less than the earlier estimate. However, the plans for the new convention center are still in their early stages, and the cost estimates are therefore preliminary. As of November 1996, the District had transferred $64.3 million to the Authority, which earned approximately $1.7 million in interest on this amount. The Authority used $14 million of this $66 million to fund operating expenses of the existing convention center, fund expenses relating to the predevelopment costs of the new convention center, and repay amounts borrowed from the District's Rainy Day Fund. The Authority is authorized to use revenue bonds backed by dedicated taxes to finance the predevelopment costs of the new convention center, or it may use those existing revenues to pay the predevelopment costs as they are incurred.
