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May 31, 2023

Court rules against Hartford’s effort to restart massive apartment development around Dunkin’ Park

Contributed Dunkin' Park in downtown Hartford.
By Michael Puffer

A Hartford Superior Court judge on Tuesday handed the City of Hartford and Stamford-based RMS Cos. a major setback in their joint effort to transform vacant lots around Dunkin’ Park into blocks of modern, market-rate apartments.

The city faces a lawsuit from the developer initially selected for, and later dismissed from, the effort to build the minor league ballpark, as well as blocks of apartments on surrounding parking lots and vacant parcels.

On Tuesday, Judge Cesar A. Noble denied a city motion that aimed to end the claims of Middletown-based Centerplan Cos. and a related LLC. that it still has rights to develop those parcels. DoNo Hartford LLC -- which signed a 2015 agreement with Hartford to develop apartments around the ballfield -- is helmed by Centerplan CEO Robert A. Landino. 

Attorney Louis Pepe of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP – representing Centerplan and DoNo Hartford LLC – said the latter fully intends to move ahead with development when it prevails.

"It is just as ready, willing and able to proceed with the development today as it was then in 2015," Pepe said. 

Pepe placed the blame for any development delay with city officials, who, he said, first wrongly dismissed the developer and then were were warned by letter in 2019 that Centerplan and Dono Hartford would appeal the earlier decision and pursue development rights around the ballfield. 

"Our position is the city wrongly terminated a master development agreement in 2017, after it terminated the building agreement," Pepe said. "That's where it went wrong. This was all the city's doing. They terminated the building agreement, then terminated the master development agreement, then terminated the ground lease. This is on the city and the mayor." 

The roughly 6,000-seat ballfield was completed in 2017, following a construction project that was delayed by a year and which saw costs jump from an initial $56 million budget to $71 million.

The city blamed Centerplan, terminating it as the developer of the partially complete stadium and revoking a Centerplan-offshoot limited liability company's ability to build apartments on nearby city-controlled lots. The city worked with Centerplan’s insurer to complete the stadium and picked Stamford-based RMS Cos. to build apartment blocks on surrounding parking and vacant lots.

RMS opened its first 270-unit development, called “The Pennant,” just south of the ballfield last year, and planned to roll into construction of a 522-space parking facility and another 528 apartments just southwest of the stadium.

Those plans hit a roadblock when the Connecticut Supreme Court, last May, ordered a new trial for Centerplan and DoNo Hartford LLC's appeal of their termination.

RMS Cos. CEO Randy Salvatore, reached Wednesday, said while the ruling is a disappointment, strong demand for apartments at the Pennant affirmed his faith in the Hartford market. Salvatore said his interest will not wane, no matter how long it takes to clear legal roadblocks.

“We are not going anywhere,” Salvatore said. “I can tell you that.”

Centerplan argues that there were problems with the stadium designs, which were drawn up at a point in which the developer had no control over the project architect. Pepe has previously asserted the city falsely accused the company of default to shift responsibility for cost overruns that the city could not afford.

Centerplan also claims the city failed to provide contractually required notice of default and did not give Centerplan an opportunity to cure alleged deficiencies.

The Centerplan/DoNo suit asserts continuing rights to develop the city-owned lots around the ballfield. In a motion filed Sept. 12, 2022, the city sought to dismiss that portion of the suit, which would have allowed development to continue while the city prepared for a new trial in 2024. The city argued a trial court previously denied DoNo's claims to enforce the former development agreement and ground leases to develop the parcels.

“The … plaintiffs are not entitled to encumber the parcels, yet again, with a recycled version of their previously discharged lis pendens,” the motion states.

The city also argued that the broken relationship between it and DoNo made the parties “unable to successfully collaborate on a multimillion-dollar, multifaceted, multi-decade undertaking involving taxpayer property."

Noble was not convinced. In a ruling on May 30, Noble denied the city's motion to strike.

"Whether the allegations are true or not, the city asks the court to deny equitable relief to the plaintiffs because of its own alleged inequitable conduct,” Noble wrote in the decision. “The court declines to do so.”

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin released a statement calling Tuesday’s decision “disappointing” and said the city is reviewing it to determine if there is a way to allow development to proceed while Hartford prepares for a new trial in 2024.

“While this is clearly a setback to our effort to further develop the parcels surrounding the stadium, we are confident that, in the end, the city will prevail in the litigation with Centerplan and DoNo," reads a portion of Bronin’s statement. 
 

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