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Ambitions for a new parking garage and rental car center at Portland International Airport grew with a change in scope. The price tag grew along with it.

The Parking Additions and Consolidated Rental Car (PACR) project is now expected to cost $282 million, up from $246 million as conceived originally. That represents a 14.6 percent increase.

The design changes were driven by a desire to provide a single rental car facility, and eliminate the need for customers to take shuttle buses to some agencies’ locations.

鈥淭he fundamental thing is we decided to bring all of the rental car agencies聽on site,鈥� said Vince Granato, the Port of Portland‘s project manager overseeing the portfolio of projects known as PDX Next. 鈥淲e needed to make the facility bigger to accommodate that.鈥�

An extra bay was added to the facility. The toll plaza was moved. And the project now includes a separate, stand-alone rental car center.

鈥淚t’s better customer service,鈥� Granato said.

For now, five rental agencies are located on-site and three are off-site. When the rental car center is complete, 12 rental car companies plan to operate there.

JE Dunn Construction is building the 2,225-space parking garage, which was designed by YGH Architecture. Site work began in early 2018. The garage and rental car center are on track to open in fall 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to additional unexpected costs, Granato said. Two positive virus tests slowed work, he said.

鈥淭here have been COVID costs that have put pressure on the budget,鈥� he said.

The parking garage is being funded by revenues from the airport’s parking operations. The rental car building is being funded by user fees paid by rental car customers and bonds issued for the project. To provide stability for both the Port of Portland and tenants, the rental car agencies agreed to 20-year leases in the new facility that will begin when they move in.

The project team saved costs in other ways, Granato said. JE Dunn locked in a steel purchase early on. The project has also benefited from stable costs for some materials.

That’s part of a wider trend, said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of the Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

鈥淲e’re still seeing some uptick in basic materials, but it’s kind of flattened out, because the industry’s kind of flattened out,鈥� Salsgiver said.

The PACR project is part of the larger PDX Next initiative to modernize Oregon’s major airport. A $1.65 billion makeover of the main terminal building has begun with a joint venture of Hoffman Construction and Skanska USA Building in the pilot’s seat. ZGF Architects is designing the terminal.

The terminal project calls for replacing the roof with a seismically sound one and radically redesigning the interior.

鈥淭he floor will be the same,鈥� Granato said, 鈥渂ut that’s about it.鈥�