Dive brief:
- The City of Hartford, Connecticut will pay $9.9 million to the original developer and builder from Dunkin’ Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, according to an Oct. 26 press release.
- Mayor Luke Bronin announced the deal with designer Centerplan Construction and developer DoNo Hartford as a way to end seven years of litigation over the development. The city terminated the contractor in 2016 after project delays, prompting the company to file a $90 million wrongful termination lawsuit.
- By settling, the city ends legal proceedings and avoids a second jury trial that would have begun this spring: A jury sided with the city in 2019, before the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2022.
Diving knowledge:
The city council will meet on Monday a decide whether to approve the agreementbut Bronin said at a press conference on Oct. 26 that he was confident it would happen.
Centerplan in Middletown, Connecticut could not be reached for comment.
The settlement calls for the city to pay $9.9 million to Arch Insurance Co., which had paid $34 million in 2016 and 2017 to finish the stadium. Arch will then make a $1.8 million payment to Centerplan. The settlement will come from a surplus, so it will not impact the city’s 2024 fiscal year or require the city to draw funds from its unassigned fund balance, the mayor said.
“While I’m sure the city would have prevailed again in another trial … the litigation would have cost many more millions of dollars in legal fees, left the city at continued risk, and could have prevented the development from It was going on for many years,” Bronin said.
The city estimates that additional litigation would have cost $5 million to $6 million and could prevent further development around the stadium.
The settlement agreement also means the city can move forward immediately with development of parcels around Dunkin’ Park that had been frozen by litigation.
“Development around the stadium will generate tax revenue for the city, reconnect neighborhoods that have long been separated by I-84 and the sea of surface parking lots, sustain our economic development momentum and will add hundreds of housing units as part of the larger mixed-use development,” Bronin said.
