Another Powerful Reason for Evicting the United Nations

Seems like the United Nations has an insatiable appetite for money, as evidenced by this article in National Review Online's "The Corner":

U.N. Sticker Shock: New Building Will Cost at Least Five Times Previous Estimates
By Brett D. Schaefer

On Wednesday, New York officials signed off on the Memorandum of Understanding that sets the stage for New York City to sell Robert Moses Playground to the United Nations. The international organization wants the land to build a second skyscraper to house its burgeoning bureaucracy.

The financial implications of this project for the U.S. government are unclear. News reports estimated the new building to cost between $370 million and $475 million. However, experience with the current U.N. renovation project (originally estimated at $600 million, the Capital Master Plan has cost more than $2 billion) raised serious concerns that the new tower would turn out to be vastly more expensive than these estimates suggest.

It turns out those concerns were justified. Last month, the U.N. Secretary-General quietly released a report titled “Feasibility Study on the United Nations Headquarters Accommodation Needs 2014–2034” (A/66/349). There, on page 13, is an initial cost estimate for the new building.

The U.N. has not promoted these estimates. And no wonder. Constructing a new building on the north lawn of the current U.N. headquarters is estimated to cost $1.97 billion. Constructing a new building in another location is estimated to be $2.42 billion.

In other words, according to the U.N., the new tower will cost about five to six times the earlier, widely reported cost estimate....