The V.I. Public Finance Authority authorized nearly $269 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency-administered funds to contractors tapped to rebuild St. Thomas public schools Wednesday amid a shutdown of the federal government, which began two weeks ago.

The territory inked the first part of the contract “bundle” in February when it awarded design and early construction services work to a joint venture between Boston-based Suffolk Construction and CBNA for $38 million. Schools in that bundle included the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, the Lockhart K-8 School, and the Jane E. Tuitt, Yvonne E. Milliner Bowsky and Emmanuel Benjamin Oliver elementary schools, as well as an administrative center.

On Wednesday, V.I. Disaster Recovery Office Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien said the contractors had completed 30 percent of the design stage for most of those projects. The administrative center’s demolition is slated for November, and demolition and construction for Lockhart and Bowsky are scheduled for early 2026.

“We had initially anticipated that we would be able to do so in 2025, but the issue with the shutdown has some pending approvals from FEMA for environmental,” she said.

In response to questions from board members, Williams-Octalien said the bundle could be completed by 2030.

“And that’s if everything goes right,” Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., who chairs the PFA board, added. “No crazy federal movements, no economic shutdowns, no global pandemics, hurricanes, earthquakes, anything. That’s everything going right.”

The board on Wednesday also approved the first stages of a full rebuild of the Herbert Grigg Home for the Aged on St. Croix were approved during a meeting of the V.I. Public Finance Authority board of directors Wednesday. The board tapped J. Benton Construction to perform the first phases of the project for nearly $26 million.

Williams-Octalien told the board that the first phase entails a 12-month preconstruction period, followed by an 18-month early construction phase.

“The first and second phase will result in the completion of the constructability reviews, value engineering, all of the preconstruction services,” she said. “And then, at that point, we’ll return to the governing board for a minimal number of amendments to the contract so we can get to the final guaranteed maximum price for this project, while simultaneously seeing construction progress.”

According to a request for proposals ODR issued in June, the rebuild will see the current Herbert Grigg Home transformed into a 65,000 square-foot long-term care facility on an undeveloped piece of land. J. Benton estimated the overall cost of the project at $69.5 million.

Board members had no objections to the proposal but noted that J. Benton has been awarded multiple large-scale disaster recovery projects. Bryan asked Williams-Octalien if there were concerns about project delivery after acknowledging that his question could be deemed “a little controversial.”

“I’m just saying, J. Benton has a lot of contracts right now, and a lot of our eggs are in one basket,” he said. “I mean, because … you’re not evaluating just one project, but the multitude of projects that they have with us — and with other people. Is that being taken into consideration when awarding this?”

Williams-Octalien said the contractor has access to additional support through its joint venture, Consigli-Benton, and noted that the projects are staggered. Further, she said, other respondents to the Herbert Grigg solicitation — Persons Services Corps. and a joint venture between CBNA and Eleven Construction — either had bonding issues or failed to convince the evaluation committee of their experience building health care facilities in the United States.

The board’s legal counsel, Kye Walker, suggested moments later that Williams-Octalien address whether J. Benton is on track to deliver its existing projects.

“I’m gonna say, for everybody: so far, so good,” she said. “Right now, where we are — we are moving at the right pace. But of course, you know, as we go into the projects, and as all of the projects get into construction, then the challenges — for manpower, resources and everything that we’ve outlined — will become evident. But so far, so good.”