By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE new United States Embassy compound on Shirley Street is about 60 percent complete, according to project director Stephen Ziegenfuss.

The project is due for completion in October 2023, he said yesterday.

Originally, the compound was to be completed by April next year, but there were setbacks due to COVID-19, including having to be shut down in January because some of the workers contracted the virus.

Mr Ziegenfuss said the present US Embassy Nassau building does not align with the standards of the US State Department, adding that the new compound will fulfil certain environmental goals among other things.

“So, the overall project cost is approximately $310m,” Mr Ziegenfuss said during a Zoom update with reporters on the development.

“That includes the land purchase, includes furniture. That’s the all-encompassing price. The construction contract is $230m and that’s just for the buildings.

“So, we call them two different prices - one is construction, one is project. So, the bigger number is all encompassing.

“As far as the timeline, yes we are running a little bit behind schedule. The contract was due to complete in April of next year, but we’re looking at a completion (in) September, October of next year and the reason for that, of course, is COVID.

“We had a shutdown. This past shutdown was not as bad as previous shutdowns, but again almost all of our workforce is vaccinated and that helped a lot with kind of the milder symptoms and a quicker recovery. So, this past shutdown we were only shut down for seven days and that helped us and the workforce at the construction site is 95 percent vaccinated.”

The more recent site shutdown was January 7 to January 13, he said, adding around 85 Bahamians work there.

Apart from the building contributing to the overall revitalisation of downtown Nassau, once complete the new site will have several key features.

“The existing embassy does not meet any of the standards for the Department of State. So, just moving into this new building will bring the US Embassy in Nassau up to all the standards that the Department of State has for all its embassies around the world.

“On top of that some of the features include a balcony on the third floor that’s connected to our cafeteria so that employees and visitors can go get a cup of coffee. They can look out north, see the cruise ships, see the ocean. That’s one of the predominant features.

“On top of that we have an entire portfolio of green initiatives that we are using. We use the American system called Leed, which we’re trying to get a Leed silver status and some of those features are first things in the designs. We do a design that uses less electricity so we’re using LED lights. We’re using highly efficient mechanical systems and then on top of that we’re generating electricity with photovoltaic cells.

“I’ve already mentioned the collection of rainwater and those are just some of the green initiatives to make the building more environmentally friendly.

“We also have a large recycling programme where we’re recycling waste materials like steel and some of the other things so that they don’t end up in the landfill,” he said.

Officials broke ground at the new site in October 2019.