The kitchenette and entrance of one of the extended stay rooms at the Wiesbaden Army Lodge. The 164-room hotel on Hainerberg housing area was due to open last September, but a water leak and other problems have delayed its opening. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
The kitchenette and entrance of one of the extended stay rooms at the Wiesbaden Army Lodge. The 164-room hotel on Hainerberg housing area was due to open last September, but a water leak and other problems have delayed its opening. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Roger Gerber, chief of the transformation stationing management for U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden, Germany, right, and Thomas Blakely, a plans and operations specialist, stand in the lobby of the Army Lodge during a tour of the facility on Aug. 10. The hotel was scheduled to open last September, but a water leak and other problems have delayed its opening. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
A construction worker puts some final touches on the window caulking in a reception area office at the Army Lodge in Wiesbaden, Germany. The 164-room hotel was suppose to open last September, but a water leak and other problems have delayed its opening. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
On the outside it looks like construction of the 164-room Wiesbaden Army Lodge is complete, but the hotel's 2009 opening was delayed due to a major water leak and other problems. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
WIESBADEN, Germany — Already a year behind schedule and slightly over budget, the Wiesbaden Army Lodge could open by the end of the year if construction crews can make final repairs in time.
The lodge in the Hainerberg housing area is part of a $600 million overhaul of Wiesbaden’s military communities in preparation for the arrival of the U.S. Army Europe’s headquarters, whose troops should start arriving in 2012.
A combination of construction defects and bad luck has plagued the project since construction began three years ago, pushing the $32 million projected cost to about $34 million.
For instance, a water leak last December damaged dozens of rooms on three floors of the 164-room hotel. The damage was extensive because a fitting broke on a weekend and the water kept leaking until Monday morning, said Orlando Ortiz, the Army Corps of Engineers’ project manager of the new hotel.
“Unfortunately, it was on the top floor, so water has a tendency to flow downhill and it made its way to the bottom,” said Roger Gerber, chief of the transformation stationing management office at Wiesbaden Army Airfield.
Then, as a German construction crew was close to repairing the damaged walls and flooded carpets, water leaked into an electrical panel and caused a fire in one of the rooms.
Despite the setbacks, Wiesbaden garrison officials remained optimistic that the hotel would be open in June or July, which could have given a boost to the Wiesbaden Entertainment Center, which opened its doors across the street in May.
But when Army officials and the construction crew did a joint inspection of the facility last month, multiple deficiencies such as chipped tiles and dents in the walls were found.
“A hotel this size, it starts to add up…all the sudden you have a list of 1,000 to 2,000 items,” Ortiz said.
Gerber said a lot of the repairs have been completed over the past two weeks.
“We’re not OK that it’s a year late, but to their credit they came back and put a dedicated effort into correcting it,” Gerber said.
Other projects around Wiesbaden continue on track, including what officials dub “the keystone of the whole consolidation” – a $125 million, 285,000-square-foot U.S. Army Europe Command and Battle Center, which is slated to be completed early in 2012.
Construction also is well under way on the $133 million housing project adjacent to the airfield, and upcoming projects on the airfield include a Consolidated Intelligence Center and an Information Processing Center. Future projects include school renovations, parking garages on the airfield, an inprocessing center at the site of the current post exchange, a new community center and new PX and commissary facilities.
