Moving to plunge Hartford into bankruptcy. Trying to strip negotiated pension rights away from Hartford's employees by legislative action. Cancelling one civic event after another under the guise of budget cuts. Throwing the developers off the stadium project and moving toward a lengthy and costly legal battle,
Now the vision for the stadium appears clearer if we are to believe a document filed in Hartford Superior Court on Friday. It has been said for a while that Bronin's plan was to remove Centerplan to clear the way for Josh Solomon , the Yardgoats owner, to bring in his buddy , John Moriarty and Associates, to complete the project
According to sources , the Chairman of the Hartford Stadium Authority, I Charles Matthews, was originally introduced to community people as "working for Josh Solomon to get the project approved" It is unclear if I Charles Matthew's time as HSA Chairman and a Solomon overlapped or when the relationship was severed. Matthews son , Brian Matthews is also a City of Hartford employee working in the Department of Development Services, the same Department overseeing the Solomon deal and the construction of the Stadium.
According to the document, Centerplan alleges that is exactly the plan and they anticipate the City and Bronin to make that announcement this coming week
"Upon information and belief, a meeting took place on or about Tuesday, July 19, 2016 between Josh Solomon, the owner of the baseball team scheduled to occupy the stadium, and representatives from a construction company – John Moriarty & Associates, Inc. (herein also “Moriarty”). At the conclusion of that meeting, representatives from the City advised both Mr. Solomon and Moriarty that they could contact subcontractors who had previously worked on the project to discuss going back to work with Moriarty overseeing the project, as opposed to Centerplan. On or about Wednesday, July 20, 2016, a project manager from Moriarty did contact at least one subcontractor to discuss going back to work under the oversight of Moriarty. Upon information and belief, the City intends to announce next week (the week of July 25) that it has retained Moriarty to complete the project. "
In the meantime, Bronin's law buddies hired to handle the suit are adding up their hourly charges as the stadium sits empty and the only game being played is Bronin and companies "fleece the taxpayers".
In the meantime Bronin may have greater problems on the horizon. A Federal Grand Jury is being impaneled to probe into the fundraising efforts and any potential criminal activity of the Connecticut Democratic Party and Governor Dannel Malloy. Bronin may have played a key role in those efforts as the Chief General Counsel; to Malloy during that time period.
17 comments:
It's almost impossible to be surprised by anything Hartford does anymore.
How many monkeys can occupy one jail cell? Ok, Bronin goes in three years. But who replaces him?
If the Court grants a hearing, we should all go down. It would be great to get facts, instead of the political spin, for once.
Bronin has given a statement to the FBI already and is awaiting a subpoena to be served upon him, compelling him to testify before the grand jury concerning his role in the re-election fundraising scandal of the Democratic Party and Dan Malloy.
Did Centerplan get compensated for the 98% of the work they completed? I assume yes.
I wonder how Centerplan's legal action is coming along...
I am not a big fan of real estate development to revive a city, but who will want to work with Hartford in the future? They are better off heading to New Britain instead.
Has there been ANY news regarding the Hard Rock Hotel? Wasn't that supposed to be part of DoNo?
4:16pm,
I think it is going next to the new supermarket, right along side the retail
You gotta appreciate the irony that centerplan, who got a no bid contract for the stadium due to their connections, even though they had no experience in building one, is whining to the court about someone coming in to clean up after them due to connections.
They all deserve each other.
@4:16
Now called "Soft Rock."
a screw up after screw up after screw up.
enough already.
I think the only ones that are truly happy about this are the"Scapegoat" players because to date they haven't had to step foot into this corrupt disaster of a city we call Hartford.
The Hard Rock Hotel declined to consider coming here.... I presume to the BS that has been happening in this poorly mismanaged city.
@6:39
Great point. If the legal argument rests on necessary changes made by city inspectors which were either built into the agreement; meaning that these course changes are an expected part of a a project of this magnitude, then Centerplan should not have much favorable outcome. If however, it could be proven that the city made many unexpected modifications that rendered the development untenable under existing agreements, then the city might find itself in the hangman's noose.
Either way, this project was destined to be a failure from the beginning. You don't take a huge track of land and develop a ball stadium which will remain unused 80% of the time. You just don't do that. And you don't waste valuable tax revenues on private enterprise. No you just don't do this. I have been a liberal-minded person all of my life. But my definition of "liberal" does not and never has includd wasteful government spending.
I am reminded of a story of a town in Florida that wanted sidewalks installed where there was none and the town applied to the state to construct. The state looked at the project and told the town that if they want a sidewalk, then they pay for it. In the case of Hartford, we had a rogue mayor leading the usual foolish council around to vote on a project just so the kids had a place to go to watch real big baseball games. Here I thinking Joel Cruz. He is like able, friendly, hard working, but having no sense of fiscal responsibility. And Jennings added that jobs were needed and I suppose government is responsible for hiring everyone.
Since the mayor use the tool of an "Authority" to circumvent the will of the people, is this authority tool a state statute and if so, can this be amended at the state level so it does not ever occur again. I will need to look this up but does anyone know about the terms of an "Authority?"
Kevin,If having a successful ,thriving minor league baseball stadium brings economic growth ,how come the stadium in New Britain doesn't have restaurants,hotels,a super market,apartments surrounding it???? They have been "rocking" for well over a couple decades. I DONT GET IT!!! If you look at other cities with minor league baseball,they didn't look at the stadium as a "Cinderella's castle" in Disney and build around it. Where did that come from?
Anonymous said... July 25, 2016 at 10:29 AM
Also check out Dodd Stadium, Norwich. Plenty of space around the stadium, no development. There is a very large revenue gap from major league to minor league. This isn't like European soccer where lower level leagues support thriving teams. US baseball is major league or bust.
Regardless, Hartford should fire the Yard Goats and find a team willing to pay for a 98% finished stadium. If you can't find one, that's all you need to know about the economics of this corrupt boondoggle. Maybe convert it to a frisbee golf / paintball / music venue.
Been to Rentschler field lately? Nothing but acres of parking spaces. Cabela's only came after a tax abatement was awarded.
And considering most of current downtown was developed after the whalers left town and it quickly becomes hard to argue about the importance of sports stadiums in a local economy.
I've also heard the City has turned down private money and volunteer work to fix up Dillon Stadium.
Sorry for being naive but assume a few pockets were lined with cash for the stadium deal. I know this is hypothetical but who might have received hard cash,approximatly how much could they get away with skimming and how do they do it.
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