Germany to issue loan to finish K-Town Mall

[unhappycamper]

German and American military members walk past the troubled Kaiserslautern Military Community Center project. The German government is loaning money to the general contractor to finish the project, a contractor spokesman said.


Germany to issue loan to finish K-Town Mall
By Chris Miles and Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
Europe edition, Thursday, November 8, 2007


RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Work on the beleaguered Kaiserslautern Military Community Center is expected to resume in the next few weeks pending a loan from the German government to the project’s top contractor.

Although the main contractor said the hotel/mall portion of the project is nearly done, the head of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday said it’s “falling apart” and urged continued investigations of the Air Force’s management of the project.

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the oversight committee, isn’t convinced the problems have been fixed.

“The Oversight Committee held a hearing in June to examine what went wrong with the K-Town Mall project, yet five months later the project continues to be over budget, behind schedule, and falling apart because of shoddy work and irresponsible management,” read a statement issued by Waxman’s office on Wednesday.

Plagued by design and management problems, the sprawling 844,000-square-foot complex near Ramstein’s west gate broke ground in December 2004 and was slated to open last year.

While still unable to determine exactly when the $170 million facility will be finished, German and U.S. officials said a multimillion euro loan from the Federal Republic of Germany to the construction management firm Landesbetrieb Liegenschafts und Baubetreuung, or LBB, will expedite its completion.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50123