With Phase I almost complete and students finally kicking back and enjoying part of the renovated Union, University Student Union officials have already kicked off construction for Phase II.The July 27 opening of the Live Oak Lounge, located on the first floor of the Union, offers new seating areas, dining options, a billiard room and more. But Student Union Director Shirley Plakidas said more chaos is imminent.”The whole front lobby is pretty well boarded up,” she said. “The wall went up — Phase II has begun.”Plakidas said Phase II includes ceiling work in the lobby, installing sprinklers and renovating meeting rooms, store rooms, the third floor offices, Tiger Lair food court and the Magnolia room. She said food court renovations won’t begin until Dec. 1, but work has already started on the rest of Phase II.”The first part of Phase II — everything but the food court — should be finished by March 2010,” she said. “Basically, it will take about seven to eight months to renovate that area.”Plakidas said the east side of the building, including the Tiger Lair and Magnolia room, is expected to be completed by Aug. 1, 2010.David Heidke, LSU Dining and Concessions director, said the new food court will contain a few new names, along with some familiar ones.”Quiznos Subs will take the place of Blimpie, and we plan to add a Panda Express,” he said. “We’ll still have Chick-fil-A, sushi, a pasta line, a traditional food line and the Outtakes Quick Cuisine area.”In addition, Heidke said Papa John’s Pizza will replace all campus Pizza Huts.Plakidas said all stores will be self-sustaining, eliminating the wait of a single checkout line.Heidke said Dining Services and Union Officials are discussing setting up a temporary food service line next semester, while the Tiger Lair is closed.”Luckily, McDonald’s and Einstein Bros. Bagels are open to offer students places to eat while Tiger Lair is closed,” he said. “However, we’re still discussing the arrangements for temporary food operations.”Outtakes at the 459 Commons dining hall and the sister operation at Pentagon Dining Hall will remain open until 10 p.m. on Saturdays and 11 p.m. on Sundays during the interim period, Heidke said.Heidke said renovations to the food court will be funded by Chartwells Food Service, the private company contracted by the University to run food services. He said the food court remodeling will cost approximately $2.5 million.Dave Besse, LSU Student Union business manager, said he estimates the Union will lose $125,000 in revenue during the Tiger Lair remodeling, even with the help of McDonald’s and Einstein Bros. Bagels.”Sales are usually slower in the spring than the fall,” he said. “So our commission loss won’t be as big.”The new lounge held its first big event Friday, as Tigers after Ten hosted its annual fall Late Night, a social event allowing students to meet fellow classmates. The event included free food, a band, a comedian and an inflatable obstacle course. Alice Womble, Tigers after Ten chairperson and former Daily Reveille employee, said this year’s Late Night was a huge success, topping the anticipated number of students.”We had at least 900 students, but we know it was well over that number,” she said.Womble said having the event in a new space added a few challenges this year, but she said once everyone is used to it, the new lounge will prove to be a better site for the event.”It was a challenge to get used to a new area, but the new space added to the event in multiple ways,” she said. “I think the new lounge will be better because it has more space and is more functional. It’s going to be the new late night zone, so it’s compatible with our types of programs.”Besse said the overall cost of the project is $83,693,000, which is paid for through student fees and bonds.”Before we sold bonds, we started collecting student fees so we wouldn’t have to borrow the full cost,” he said. “We borrowed $73,430,000 through bonds. The rest was paid up front using money collected from the fees. This kept the cost of the fee lower than if we had to borrow an additional $10 million.”Besse said the bonds average at just under a 5 percent interest rate. He said the University has been paying back the bonds, but the project won’t be fully paid off for approximately another 27 years.Plakidas said the Union was originally built and then renovated with 20-year bonds, though these bonds are 25-30 years.”Essentially, all auxiliary services are paid through bonds,” she said.Besse said the project cost was estimated at $54.6 million prior to Hurricane Katrina, but building materials and contractor prices rose with demand following the storm. In addition, the original estimate of the Union Theater was undershot by about $12 million.Plakidas said they made the decision early in the project to keep as many services as possible up and running through the construction so the Union will still be available to all students.”Most of the students here now don’t remember when the Union wasn’t under construction, since we started in 2006,” she said. “Closing it completely during construction would have made the project faster, but some students wouldn’t get to enjoy the Union during their time here.”Though major construction went on for two years without visible results, students are finally seeing progress on a project paid for with their student fees.”I’ve heard many positive things about the Live Oak Lounge,” Plakidas said. “People are happy for it to finally have come to fruition. We expect this area to be heavily used by students.”Ken Boothby, petroleum engineering freshman, said he is impressed with the new lounge, and it’s worth the student fees it cost to build it.  “There’s really no other place on campus that’s as comfortable as the lounge,” he said. “This place is really nice.” Paul Barthee, business sophomore, said the Live Oak Lounge is a good place to study, watch television and hang out. “This space is pretty cool,” he said. “Though I didn’t know we had to pay a fee for construction, I still think the fee is worth it.”But not all students are sold on the renovations. Daniel Barthee, creative writing and philosophy senior, said he prefers the old downstairs lounge. “Before they renovated this area there was a bowling alley, an arcade and more pool tables,” he said. “I like the new space here — it’s a nice, modern design. However, I would have been fine if they left it how it was.” After battling a couple hurricanes, encountering a few undocumented building features and changing plans to comply with building standards, Plakidas said she hopes all the delays are in the past and the Union can stay on path to the now projected March 2011 completion date.”We just hope the hurricanes stay away this year,” she said. “If all goes well, we might be open before the March 2011. However, the fact that it is a state funded project definitely prolongs the construction.”- – – -Contact Steven Powell at [email protected]