The US State Department has finally given the financial go-ahead to build a US$170 million new office complex to house the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
A contract for US$54.4 million has been awarded to Weston Solutions Inc of West Chester, Pennsylvania, to start work on the first phase, which includes clearing and grading the site in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
The company will also build a perimeter security system, vehicular and pedestrian access control facilities, recreational facilities, guards quarters, maintenance buildings and a surface parking area.
TWO YEARS
Completion of the first phase of the project, on a 6.5-hectare site that has been leased for 99 years from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, is expected to take about two years.
The second phase of building, which will include the construction of the new office facility — which is currently being designed — will take another two-and-a-half years.
Staff may not actually move into the new complex until 2014.
“We have a unique relationship with Taiwan and this building will reflect that, but we can’t give any other details at this point,” a Washington-based US government official said.
The complex will replace the current AIT compound in downtown Taipei that accommodates about 200 US and local staff and is protected by Taiwanese police.
MARINES
When the State Department first advertised for a contractor last April it said the new AIT complex would include Marine guard quarters.
But while most US embassies around the world are guarded by Marines, US military forces have been barred from Taiwan since the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
And it may be significant that in its announcement of the phase one contract, the State Department made no mention of a Marine facility, but said simply that the new complex would include “guard quarters.”
There had been speculation that the new complex would include a US Marine barracks — a move that would greatly anger China — but a well-placed source in Washington said that this would not happen and that it was “highly unlikely” that Marines would replace the local guards now used by the AIT in Taiwan.
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