Construction on the Robert E. Spiller Bowling Green Veterans Center is eyeing a Sept. 11 substantial completion date. The center was originally slated to be already open, but the new target date pushes completion nearly seven months later than had been expected.

Mark Bowman, executive director of the Office of Kentucky Veterans Centers within the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, told the Daily News the delay is due to some change orders and supply chain issues that came down during the construction process.

“We found some things we hoped to change and they have to work through that,” he said.

The facility has been in the works for years, with discussions on constructing a home for veterans going as far back as the 1990s. Dirt was turned on the 80,000-square-foot facility in November 2022. Once the facility is finished, over 130 new jobs will be brought to the region.

The Kentucky General Assembly last year appropriated $28 million for the project. It will be the fifth of its kind in the state. There are similar facilities open in Radcliff, Hazard, Hanson and Wilmore.

Delays have hit the center time after time. Bowman told the Daily News in December a multitude of different factors have pushed the opening date back, ranging from increased cost of building materials to issues with securing state funding to even finding land for the facility.

Bowman said one of the larger delays recently was due to hold-ups in getting furniture supplied to the facility.

“As we go through a tour of the facility, not that it was designed and built (badly), all of a sudden you see something that you might want to change,” he said.

He said this has included redoing some tile work inside and other small alterations, like adjusting some of the alarms on doors to make them safer for residents.

“All of those are little in themselves, but when you add them up, it just delays because there were so (many) unexpected changes to the construction,” he said.

Even with the change orders, Bowman said costs will still fall within the $28 million allocation.

He said once the substantial completion date is met and the facility receives a certificate of occupancy and a certification from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, staff and residents will begin moving in.

If the Sept. 11 date is met, Bowman expects residents to begin arriving at the facility in late November. Space will be provided for up to 60 veterans once it opens.

Construction work is now focusing on the change orders that have been made.

“It’s not like you go on a construction site and you have trucks and people running all over the place,” he said. “It’s finely tuned, but those remaining projects are necessary to get our occupancy permit and go through the certification process.

“No matter how much you do and plan and talk about it, sometimes you just say ‘I missed that one, let me add something on,’ ” he said.