A plan to turn to the site of a former state office building near Los Angeles City Hall into a park has been dealt a setback, according to a report to the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners.

Per the report, the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering estimates that the total cost of the two-acre First and Broadway Park has increased to $28 million - a figure that far outstrips the $17.2 million currently allocated to the project.

The Department of Recreation and Parks, which is working to address the funding shortfall, and has identified an additional $2.6 million in Quimby fees that could be dedicated to the First and Broadway Park.  The money was raised from fees paid by developers who have ongoing projects within a five-mile radius of the park site.

While the new money would raise the total funding for the project to $19.8 million, this is still more than $8 million short of the estimated cost of the park.  Construction of the project, which environmental documents have indicated was expected to begin this year, cannot proceed until sufficient funding has been secured.

The First and Broadway Park would reuse the site of a 13-story state office building that was damaged and demolished due to earthquake damage in the 1970s.  The City of Los Angeles acquired the property in 2013, and launched a design competition for a park in 2016.

The winning submission from Studio MLA and OMA envisions a space with both landscaped and hardscaped areas, and a two-story restaurant for site activation.