In a little more than a year, the University of Guam’s School of Engineering Building will be constructed, according to officials.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Dec. 10 for UOG’s first School of Engineering Building after about 10 years of delays.
What started as a $5.4 million contract with Bascon Corp. became a $7.9 million contract with Future World Inc., according to Journal files.
The construction contractor aims to complete the project on time, according to Richard Chi, company president. The project’s estimated completion date is March 2025.
Construction of the 16,500-foot construction project required “multifaceted efforts,” according to a UOG press release. The construction delays were attributed to “complex financing arrangements as construction costs throughout the island escalated in the past several years,” the press release added.
In 2014 UOG signed a $21.7 million loan with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The loan was intended to cover the engineering building as well as the Lucio C. Tan Student Center. However, UOG did not complete the project within five years of when the USDA loan was signed in 2014. Under federal rules, interim financing from a private firm was then required to secure the loan and jumpstart the project, according to Journal files. As part of that process, USDA would then later reimburse what was borrowed.
In 2019, Joseph Diego, area director of the USDA Rural Development Office for the Western Pacific, told the Journal that as the five-year period ended, “We had to tell them they couldn’t do anything.” At that point, Diego told the Journal that USDA was working with UOG on a new application to reset the timeline for the loan. Diego also said that some of the factors that led to the delay included trouble getting contractors, files noted.
In the meantime, contractors changed, and contract costs increased — from $250 per square foot to about $508 per square foot. What was a $5.4 million contract with Bascon Corp. for an engineering school building became a 7.9 million contract with Future World Inc. And the $15 million student center that was originally to be built by Zhong Ye Inc. became a $22.9 million building contract with Reliable Builders Inc., according to Journal files.
Because construction costs exceeded the initial $21.7 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, UOG requested and received from the 36th Guam Legislature and the Office of the Governor additional funding. Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero agreed to provide $7.1 million and the remaining $2 million is from repurposed UOG American Rescue Plan funds, according to Journal files.
UOG President Anita Borja Enriquez also thanked the governor for providing the $7 million. “It really took a community effort to make all of these come to fruition,” she said.
In the last few weeks, UOG has broken ground on two other construction projects: the Margaret Perez Hattori-Uchima School of Health’s Nursing Annex; and the Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Pacific facility.
“Working in concert with the University of Guam Endowment Foundation, we are blessed now to have the third out of four projects that we have been anticipating,” President Enriquez said.
The Student Success Center will be the fourth project to break ground soon, according to UOG.
The UOG Board of Regents approved a four-year bachelor of science in Civil Engineering for the School of Engineering in February 2019.
UOG established partners in workforce development and career pathways for UOG Engineering students and graduates with:
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Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Marianas
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University of Hawaii at Mānoa and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard
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Cabras Marine Corp.
Since 2022, UOG’s School of Engineering has produced 28 civil engineering Graduates and welcomed 170 declared civil engineering majors in Academic Year 2022-2023. mbj