HARTFORD--The fight over the Downtown North stadium continues to simmer.
Days after FOX 61 reported that the Hartford Stadium Authority said the developer, DoNo Hartford LLC, was over budget and behind schedule on Dunkin' Donuts Park, Mayor-elect Luke Bronin spoke out on the issues.
"The city has put, under the outgoing administration, an enormous amount of resources into this project and now it's time for the team and the developer to get to the table and figure out what they need to figure out to move this forward," Bronin said.
DoNo said in a statement on Monday, after the city's accusations came to light, that the city breached its contract and that's why it was behind and over budget.
A key point that DoNo makes is that the company was initially under the impression that it would have complete control over the design, which it began working on after delivering the contract for the $56 million stadium on February 4, 2015. However, DoNo says that on March 23 the city sent completed drawings and blueprints for the stadium to DoNo, which differed from the company's initial plans.
DoNo says that the city then released its official contract to the company on June 10, which was four months late and therefore delayed work. It also did not match DoNo's plans, and stated that DoNo's "only authority to manage the [city's designated] architect going forward was to oversee construction administration through the completion of work."
DoNo says it submitted 160 proposals to reduce costs and change the scope of the project that the city submitted, but only 40 were accepted, meaning the project would cost "well in excess of the original $56 million."