Renovation of Cayucos Veterans Hall is way behind schedule. What happened?
Work to renovate the Cayucos Veterans Hall was supposed to have been completed in early 2024, but nearly a year later, the project remains unfinished.
What caused the delay?
The short answer about the slow progress is because some of the work performed by the contractor and its subcontractors at the building at 10 Cayucos Drive had to be redone.
Issues involving the concrete, drywall and subfloors were among those that required some do-over work, and the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors plans to address the project at its meeting on Tuesday.
“The Vets Hall contractor is way behind schedule on this project — and some of that is from having to redo parts of the work,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson told The Tribune last Tuesday, adding that “the remedial work … is being redone at the contractor’s expense.”
What’s happening with the project and what does it mean for the timeline?
The Tribune looked into progress on the historic building as part of its Reality Check series.
What’s being redone at the Cayucos Vets Hall rehab project?
Spokesperson Shelly Cone told The Tribune that the county has three particular areas of work that need to be redone to get the Vets Hall back to being the town’s primary gathering place:
▪ “Concrete rework — there was difficult construction in some areas but as public stewards we want to ensure quality work is performed according to the contract, so there was some rework required to achieve this.”
▪ “Paint/drywall rework — there were problems with the drywall texture and paint that did not meet the quality requirements in the contract, and again, to achieve a quality end product the county required, some of this work to be re-done.”
▪ Subfloor replacement — the subfloor was installed before the building was completely weatherproof, and rain affected some areas. The county did necessary testing, found issues and the contractor agreed to replace the affected areas.”
“The county understands the public is excited to see the rehabilitation of this historically significant building completed,” Cone said.
“While these delays are frustrating, they are not unexpected due to the nature of work involved with refurbishing an over 140-year-old building,” she said, noting that the project “included some unique and complicated challenges such as moving the facility off its original foundation then back onto a new foundation, which raised the building 30 inches to protect it from sea-level rise.
“Also, the facility will have new heating, plumbing and electrical systems,” she said.
The essentially new structure, which includes many elements to retain its historic character, wasn’t damaged during the construction, Cone said, but the job included “some construction issues” and a redo of those was needed.
“When the project is complete,” she said, “the Cayucos Veterans Hall will once again become an attractive gathering place for community events.”
The current estimate for completion is sometime this spring, according to Tuesday’s agenda packet.
What happens next and who’s footing the bill?
The Board of Supervisors will discuss the project’s status and the related scheduling, contract and financial issues at its meeting on Tuesday.
While more money is needed for consultant and other services, and there will be some budget adjusting to do, those costs ultimately will be covered by the contractor.
With the county’s tightly drawn contract, the contractor and its subcontractors are on the fiscal hook for the fixes in the redo of the town’s largest venue, which was was shut down by the state fire marshal in June 2021 due to safety concerns.
According to Tuesday’s agenda-item description, the $8.5 million construction contract for the project, approved in late 2022 by the supervisors, called for JG Contracting of Nipomo to have finished the complex Veterans Hall renovation by February 2024.
“The contract has not had to come back to the Board of Supervisors because the contractor is being charged ‘liquidated damages’ for the delay,” Gibson said. “That is, the county is charging them (by withholding certain payments) for each day they are behind schedule. Thus, their delay has not added to the overall cost.”
Those damages are costing JG Contracting $2,000 a day that they won’t be paid for the missed deadline, the agenda packet said.
Even though “the delays have caused the county to incur added ‘soft costs,’ such as additional administrative and construction management/oversight costs,” the supervisor said, those “are being offset by the collection of ‘liquidated damages’ from the contractor, resulting in no increase to our overall construction costs.”
Looking ahead to the future of the county treasure
In the past, Gibson has often referred to the Vets Hall as the “civic heart” of the small, coastal town.
The Veterans Hall was built in 1875 by Cayucos founder James Cass, who used it as a warehouse. It and the 940-foot-long pier he built helped establish the town as a viable shipping port for cargo bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles.
At a 2021 hearing about the renovation project, Gibson lauded the public’s dedication to the facility and their determination to see the venue fixed and reopened.
He called the restoration “a project you can support with your head and our heart,” adding about the community that “how much they care about this venue is really extraordinary.”
Indeed, as Cayucans and others had rallied earlier to support repair of the Cayucos Pier with nearly $1 million in donations, they also dug deeply to contribute $500,000 toward reconstruction of the Vets Hall, according to www.restorecayucosvetshall.org, plus hundreds of thousands more that’s now dedicated toward providing furnishings, equipment and ensuring local access.
State Parks owns the structure, but the county Parks and Recreation Department will operate and manage the facility while raising money through rental rates for it to repay a $3 million bond. Events under the oversight of Friends of the Vets Hall can use the facility for free during the week and at reduced rates on weekends, as long as the county doesn’t have to provide any services for those events, according to participant Greg Bettencourt. The Friends committee will make sure that happens.
