UN/CMP REVISITS SINGLE PHASED APPROACH TO UN

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000803

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ABUD ACABQ AORC UNGA
SUBJECT: UN/CMP REVISITS SINGLE PHASED APPROACH TO UN
RENOVATION PROJECT

REF: USUN 00647


1. This is an action cable see paragraph 8.


2. The CMP renovation project is reportedly over budget by
$220 million. Over the past two weeks, senior level officers
within the UN Secretariat, including the UN's Capital Master
Plan Office, have told State Department officials and
representatives of the Government Accountability Office the
UN is once again considering a single phased approach to
renovating the UN instead of a multi-stage process that the
GA approved last year.


3. The multi-year approach, endorsed by the General Assembly
in resolution 60/282, calls for the following: 10 floors of
the Secretariat building would be vacated at each of the
phases to allow renovation of the Secretariat building in
four phases. Now, senior level officers in CMP and the
Secretariat believe a single phased approach may bring the

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project back within budget and shave time off the current
2014 projected completion date.


4. The single phased approach, when it was first proposed,
called for vacating the maximum amount of space in the
Secretariat building, then moving staff to four or more

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commercial swing spaces in midtown and downtown Manhattan,
and for the Dag Hammarskjold Library to a space in Long
Island City, Queens. Both a multi-phased approach and the
single-phased approach call for the construction of a
temporary conference facility on the North Lawn to serve
meetings of intergovernmental organs.


5. According to CMP officers a building in midtown Manhattan
near UN headquarters may be coming on line that could
accommodate some 2,000 UN staff members. This would make the
single-phased approach feasible. The landlord is willing to
offer a short term lease of 3-5 years to the UN. Such a lease
would cover the anticipated renovation time of the
Secretariat.

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6. A change in strategy such as moving now to a single-phase
approach by CMP will require approval by the General
Assembly. CMP officials have quietly broached the subject of
changing direction with Fifth Committee Secretariat officials
to gauge the reaction of Fifth Committee delegates.


7. Comment: The decision to revisit the single phase approach
is Michael Adlerstein's attempt to keep the project within
the original scope and budget of the project and is in
keeping with his stated commitment to tweak the budget
wherever possible to comply with the General Assembly's
approved $1.9 billion budget for the project. Adlerstein's
communication skills along with those of Under-Secretary
General Alicia Barcena will be tested as they brief member
states and seek GA endorsement for this new plan. Inevitably
of course, revisiting this GA decision will once again reopen
and politicize the CMP debate which was by all accounts
concluded last year. Congressional critics of the project
will be emboldened by the rising costs exceeding budget
projections. That said, the single-phase approach is less
complicated, and might eliminate the disruptions to UN
operations envisioned under the multi-phase approach.


8. Finally, Mission has received on confidential basis the
Fifth annual progress report on the implementation of the
Capital Master Plan. The plan, in addition to highlighting
the hiring of both the CMP Executive Director Michael
Adlerstein and the construction firm Skanska, describes the
benefit of expediting the renovation of the Secretariat and
conference buildings through a single phase approach.
According to the report, Skanska is currently undertaking a
detailed review of the project's budget and schedule. That
review is expected to be completed in November 2007. The
report projects the cost to complete the project has now
risen to $2.96 billion. This represents an increase of $220
million over the $1.8 billion approved by the General
Assembly in December 2006. Rising costs are attributed to
rising renovation costs, swing space costs, and options.
However, the report states that reducing the time of the
renovation and reducing the number of phases would result in
a project that is back within budget. A copy of the report is
being pouched to the Department.


9. Action: US Mission to the United Nations requests guidance
from the Department on whether USUN should encourage CMP to
stick with the multi-phased approach or advise they revisit
the single-phase approach in consultation with Skanska the
construction manager.
KHALILZAD