Executives Behind Great Hall Project At DIA Meet With Mayor Michael Hancock
DENVER (CBS4) - Top level executives from Spanish airport developer Ferrovial, who are guiding the redevelopment of DIA's Great Hall Project, met face to face Tuesday morning with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. They met to see if they could settle their differences over projected delays and cost overruns.
CEOs of various Ferrovial subsidiaries, along with executives from Saunders construction, met with Hancock for an hour. Several of the Ferrovial executives had flown in from their home base in Spain.
"I'm not making advisement to the camera", said Ignacio Gaston, CEO of Ferrovial Agroman, which is working on the Great Hall Project.
Following the closed door session, Greg Schmidt, President and CEO of Saunders Construction termed the meeting "good, we talked about issues," but Schmidt would not elaborate. "I'm not going to answer any questions."
The Mayor's office issued a statement after the meeting saying,
"We continue to work through the confidential process to deliver a great project. We cannot comment further."
The high level meeting came after ongoing reports from the developer of lengthy delays and cost overruns in the redevelopment project. Great Hall Partners most recently estimated the project could be delayed two and a half to more than three years due to issues with concrete in the terminal and change orders.
The project, which began in 2018, was originally supposed to be completed by 2021, but now may not be finished until at least 2024, according to the developers most recent estimate. They have also estimated the $650 million project is 47% over budget and could end up costing $960 million.
GHP has blamed much of the cost overruns on change orders from Denver.
The redevelopment is intended to increase terminal capacity, redesign security, improve passenger flow and open up more retail space in the airport's Great Hall.
As he left the meeting, Jorge Gil, Ferrovial's CEO of airports, declined to answer questions saying only, "Thank you so much for your interest."
Prior to Tuesday, Denver and the terminal developer had been in mediation to attempt to settle their differences.
But those mediation sessions have been put on hold as several sources have told CBS4 the mediator has been suffering from medical issues.
