Work on Dental School set to resume

After four months of negotiations, Penn has signed an agreement to resume construction on the Robert Schattner Dental School Building at 40th and Locust streets. Construction of the $22 million facility was halted in mid-September when the University defaulted its contract with York Hunter, the New York-based construction company previously heading the project. Last Monday, Penn entered an agreement with the contractor's surety company, which will complete the construction. The project is scheduled to be complete in the spring of 2002. "I signed a takeover agreement with a surety company that allows them to come in and assume the role of the contractor and resume construction," Vice President of Facilities Services Omar Blaik said. "There will be some activity this week, and they will move ahead with the project in a very short period of time." A surety company ensures the completion of a project should the original contract with the construction company fall through. Negotiation with the surety company, a subsidiary of American International Group, was a delicate and complex process due to the size of the contract, Blaik said. But he also said that the duration of the negotiations was not unusual, considering the size of the project. "With a contract of this complexity, it is normal for it to take that long," Blaik said. "There is a lot of uncertainty on their part, as to how much work has been done thus far, how much of that work was acceptable; there are a lot of contractual issues." Blaik said that the projected timeline -- which calls for completion nine months to one year after construction resumes -- was no longer than originally projected. And the University will not lose money on the project, because the surety company assumes all additional costs. But even if the Schattner Center opens next spring as scheduled, it will still be a year and a half behind the October 2000 deadline projected when preparations first began for the building in 1998. The University stopped construction last September, saying that the contractor failed to fulfill its end of the contract. Penn also entered into arbitration with York Hunter in reaction to the breach of contract. The construction company was not on track to completing the project by the final deadline, according to University representatives. York Hunter General Counsel Mike Silvermintze said in February that the company was planning a countersuit for wrongful termination. The two parties' disagreements resulted from disputes over deadlines for completing various phases of the project. The construction company complained that problems with design and materials -- issues stemming from the University's end of the project -- were at the root of the delays. When construction stopped, there were over 90 men on the job approximately four more months away from completion, York Hunter representatives said. Labor shortages and the need to reschedule the manufacture of material may contribute to an additional delay, the contractor surmised. When completed, the three floor, 70,000 square foot facility will house the Dental Care Center, a major oral health provider, as well as educational and patient care facilities including clinics and surgeries. Funding for the project included a donation from 1948 Dental School Alumnus Robert Schattner and a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.