It is now estimated that a massive music hall and conference center at
Reykjavík’s harbor, whose construction has more or less halted since
the economic crisis began, will end up costing 650 million ISK (about
0.5 million USD) more than was expected.
The growing cost, incurred since the city and the government took over the project earlier this year in a joint partnership, is largely attributed to the weakening of the crown. The Central Bank does not predict that crown will significantly strengthen for at least the next three years.
In all, the project could end up costing a total of 25.2 billion ISK (nearly 200 million USD). When the project was first launched in 2002, it was estimated that the total cost would be somewhere around 6 billion ISK (around 47 million USD). Only early last month the total cost was estimated at 20 billion ISK.
The project has been in the works in some form or another for nearly ten years, and completion isn’t expected until 2011.