Planners Consider Eliminating Convention Center Parking Lot

BOSTON-As part of the effort to reduce cost overruns for the planned Convention Center, planners are considering reducing or discarding the indoor parking lot. The change would reportedly result in as much as $30 million in savings, but such a move is likely to be opposed by neighborhood residents. Instead, the eight-acre parcel would be reserved for future expansion.

The $750-million project is reportedly $100 million over budget and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is currently looking at options to reduce that figure. It blames most of the overruns on rising construction costs. Among the other cost-cutting measures under review is reducing the 600,000-sf exhibition space by 100,000 sf. But because construction drawings are 75% complete, this would require much of that work to be redone, adding to the design fees. The change might also require legislative, environmental and community approval.