BART Buying Oakland Building for Police Headquarters at $1,000 per Square Foot Amid Widening Deficit

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) board of directors recently approved the purchase of a building in Oakland for its police headquarters, with renovation and seismic upgrades potentially pushing the price to more than $125 million when the agency is faced with approximately $300 million in annual operating deficits and unfunded capital needs of nearly $16 billion over the next 10 years. The agency made the decision after discussions regarding renovating its current location on 8th Street in the Lake Merritt area of Oakland, where it has been since 2017, was dismissed. “Total costs of the proposed building will exceed $1,000 per square foot when complete, for a 42-year-old structure that will still be a 42-year-old structure when upgrades are complete,” BART Director Debora Allen told The Epoch Times Dec. 1. “The board’s approval … represents a continuation of poor decision making I have witnessed from the seven-member majority of this nine-member board over the last seven years.”...