Maritime museum faces problems, nears budget

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Later in 2013, the GulfQuest Maritime Museum will have tourists, but recently, it had mold.

Tuesday, February 5, construction crews were back at work at the GulfQuest Maritime Museum and we're told the mold problem has been taken care of.

Mold was discovered inside the Gulf Quest Maritime Museum site and we’re monitoring the developments. At that time, construction was shut down.

Mobile Mayor Sam Jones said, "They've stopped the water from dripping, and they've already started cleaning the mold, so we don't expect that to be a major issue. Especially once they put the HVAC in."

Jones said the weather was to blame for the mold problem; humidity caused mildew to grow. Jones said the problem has been stopped and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units will be installed to regulate the temperature inside.

Related: An inside look at the GulfQuest Museum's construction

The city is investing a hefty amount of taxpayer money — $32 million, so far — into this so we wanted to find out if everything is falling within budget.

City officials budgeted $39 million for the GulfQuest project when construction crews broke ground in April 2009 .

That's taxpayer money.

So far, they've spent $32 million on this project. GulfQuest officials don't expect this to go over budget. A GulfQuest spokesman said the city has backup funds just in case.

The attraction won't open until the fall of 2013, but the mayor feels the patience will pay off.

"You have to have something downtown that people want to go to. That people want to explore and we don't have a lot of those downtown,” said Jones.

In all, this project will cost around $58 million.

After the city’s investment, the rest of that money comes from pledges and fundraisers. We'll make sure to continue watching the budget of the project.

The city has invested big buck into this and they’re expecting big things. Officials have said they expect the museum to bring $5 Million to the city every year after it is finished.

Until then, the GulfQuest official doesn't expect the project to run over-budget.