Dive Brief:

• The cost of the almost-complete Sacramento Kings Golden 1 Center is now $556.6 million, up $21.7 million in the last month and almost $80 million higher than the project's initial price tag when construction began in 2014, according to the Sacramento Bee.
• The city's investment in the project was limited to $255 million, so the Kings ownership must make up any budget overruns. The team said the new costs are due to the addition of a $30 million practice facility and other design changes, such as a reconfiguration of the bowl area so that fans can be closer to game play.
• The facility's first scheduled events are two Paul McCartney concerts in October, but the venues will not be 100% complete until 2017.

Dive Insight:

General contractor Turner Construction began working on the project almost two years ago, and, at the beginning of this month, the Kings said the project was on pace to be complete before October. When the arena was first announced, city officials hoped it would bring life back into the area surrounding the facility. So far, hotel and office developers have expressed interest in building there, and construction of a hotel and condominium high-rise next to the arena is already underway.

Just one year ago, prior to the new FAA rules on small commercial drones, Turner drew attention to the arena project with its use of drones to monitor construction progress. Drones flew over the site on a weekly basis, giving Turner the data it needed to create 3-D models to compare to the original plans. Aerial images showed the company where work slowdowns are occurring and how a lapse in one area was affecting the overall project.

Turner and the Kings also made news in late 2014 when they recruited local low-income, homeless, veteran, ex-offender and former foster child workers for the project as part of the Community Workforce Pipeline initiative in conjunction with local unions. The goal of the program was to funnel at least 70 people into union apprenticeship or job training programs so that they could come back to work on the arena.