Settlement reached in ballpark construction in CT city – Hartford Courant

HARTFORD The city of Hartford would pay nearly $10 million to end a 7-year court battle over the development of Dunkin Park and the land around it, clearing the way for further apartment construction in the area, perhaps starting by the end of this year.

The $9.9 million settlement, outlined in a letter Thursday from Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin to the city council, calls for the city to pay that amount to Arch Insurance Co., the insurance company that financed the completion of the citys minor league ballpark just north of downtown.

All sides in the court dispute involving the city agreed that there would be no further litigation in the matter in the future. They include the former developers Centerplan and DoNo Hartford LLC who were fired by Bronin from the unfinished ballpark project in 2016, and a year later, the mixed-use development around the 6,100-seat stadium.

Negotiating directly with Arch was critical to reaching a settlement, Bronin wrote to the city council. The settlement relieves Centerplan chief executive Robert Landino of paying a court-ordered $34 million to Arch for finishing the ballpark, making the settlement acceptable to the developers. Arch also would pay Centerplan and DoNo Hartford $1.8 million under the settlement.

Centerplan and DoNo Hartford filed a wrongful termination civil lawsuit shortly after being fired and initially sought $90 million in damages. The lawsuit touched off a court battle that stretches back to the earliest days of Bronins two-term tenure.

Bronin is asking the city council to convene a special meeting Monday where Bronin will seek approval of the settlement.

Bronin, who is not seeking a third term, steadfastly has defended his decision to terminate the developers.

The city was victorious in a jury trial in the case in 2019; and even though the developers successfully appealed that decision to win a new trial set to begin in the spring Bronin has maintained the city would again be on the winning side.

Bronin reiterated that belief at an afternoon news conference at Hartford City Hall. But the prospect of years of further appeals costing as much as $6 million plus years of stalled redevelopment around Dunkin Park made the settlement the right option for the city, Bronin said.

The settlement represents an opportunity not only to eliminate those legal fees but to remove the cloud of this litigation all together, Bronin said. And to allow the city of Hartford to move forward with the development of the parcels around the baseball park and to ensure the new administration can come in without the distraction of on-going litigation.

Since 2016, legal fees paid to outside firms with expertise in construction law have reached about $6 million. With those fees, the costs of defending and settling the lawsuit are closer to $16 million.

The developer who replaced Centerplan and DoNo Hartford Stamford-based RMS Cos. had completed one phase of the development the $50 million, 270-unit apartment known as The Pennant around Dunkin Park.

But RMS had been blocked from moving on to the second of four planned phases for more than a year by the litigation. RMS founder and chief executive Randy Salvatore has stated multiple times that he remained committed to the development.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Im obviously very excited about the whole thing, Salvatore said Thursday, of the settlement. Were gearing up right now to go, so Im hopeful that we can have a groundbreaking by the end of the year.

North Crossings second phase on so-called Parcel B would have 532 apartments and a 541-space garage, plus 10,000 square feet of storefront space, at a cost of $120 million. The development would be split into two parts. The first to be worked on would include 228 apartments and the parking garage. The balance of the rentals would be completed in the second half.

At the news conference, Bronin said moving forward with North Crossing was important for several reasons. They include generating new taxes to help pay off the citys costs in building Dunkin Park and regaining the momentum behind the citys revitalization and fueling economic development, both of which took a hit in the pandemic.

The development around the ballpark was always the core of the promise to the city of Hartford that this would be more than a ballpark project but a neighborhood redevelopment that would help us reconnect our neighborhoods, get rid of a sea of surface parking and knit our neighborhoods back together, Bronin said.

Louis R. Pepe, an attorney for the former developers issued a statement Thursday that said: Centerplan and DoNo Hartfordare very pleased with the settlement of the claims they had against the City of Hartford in this matter, and they look forward to recovering additional compensation for their losses in the continuing litigation against the design professionals for the stadium project.

Negotiating with Arch Insurance

The settlement negotiated over months turns on a 2019 federal court ruling in which Centerplans Landino was ordered to pay Arch Insurance about $34 million tied to the ballparks completion.

Arch successfully argued that Landino had failed to reimburse the insurer for what it paid out to finance the completion of the ballpark. Arch hired a new construction company and the stadium the home field of the Hartford Yard Goats opened for its first season in 2017, a year later than planned.

Bronin noted that Arch paid about $34 million to complete the ballpark, and the settlement was less than 30% of that amount.

Had the city not terminated Centerplan and called the bond in 2016, the city would have been responsible for that $34 million, at a minimum, and probably more in order to complete the ballpark, Bronin wrote to the city council.

Bronin wrote that the city has reserved sufficient funds for the settlement from prior year surpluses, which means this settlement will not have any impact on the current year budget, and will not require us to draw down any funds from our unassigned fund balance.

The unassigned balance is essentially the citys rainy day fund.

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

Bronins letter and comments at the news conference toned down the stronger, public comments he has made in the past defending his decision to fire Centerplan and DoNo Hartford. Bronin often has said, and as recently as July in an interview with The Courant, that he never regretted his decision to fire Centerplan and DoNo Hartford.

There is no doubt in my mind that if we hadnt made the decision that we made in 2016, we would not have a baseball park even today, Bronin said, in July. Instead of an award-winning, nationally recognized baseball park, wed still have an unfinished hulk of concrete and steel.

The Centerplan and DoNo lawsuit has spawned nearly 700 court filings since 2016.

Centerplan and DoNo Hartford were hired for the ballpark project and the development of a swath of empty parking lots around it by Bronins predecessor, Mayor Pedro E. Segarra.

In 2019, a Superior Court jury sided with the citys decision to terminate the developers. But last year, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial because the critical question of who had legal control over the stadium and its design was ambiguous. Centerplan and DoNo Hartford have argued it was the city, that the designs were flawed, resulting in cost overruns and delays in the ballparks construction.

After the citys 2019 court victory, the city chose RMS as the new developer. But when a new trial was ordered, Centerplan and DoNo Hartford last year also moved to essentially take back control of the development around Dunkin Park. That stopped RMS from moving beyond what the first phase of North Crossing.

The barrier to further development strengthened in May when a Superior Court judge ruled that who had the right to develop needed to come after the new trial and a decision on the wrongful termination case. The new trial was scheduled for April 2024.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.

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Settlement reached in ballpark construction in CT city - Hartford Courant