HARTFORD - After months of back-and-forth, a falling out with developers and the possibility of losing its team, Dunkin' Donuts Park looks like it's about to get back on track.
On Tuesday, the city announced that the insurance company covering the project, Arch, has made an agreement with the architecture firm on the project, Pendulum, to restart construction and finish the stadium.
"We need to keep this process moving and it's a small price to pay to make sure that Arch takes the necessary steps to taking full responsibility," Mayor Luke Bronin said Wednesday.
The city will pay Pendulum about $247,000 to pay outstanding debts left by the former developers, DoNo LLC and Centerplan, which were fired earlier this summer after not completing the park on t time.
On Wednesday, officials toured the park to see what's left to complete to get the park ready for baseball.
Regardless of if the city restarts construction, the Yard Goats won't play at home for the team's inaugural season. However, the team owners did make an ultimatum that they may leave Hartford if the park isn't completed by the end of the year.
While construction may restart without the developers, they may eventually rejoin the project. Centerplan released a statement on Wednesday insisting it was wrongfully terminated from the project, and the company has filed a lawsuit against the city.
Here's the full statement from Centerplan:
Centerplan has been working diligently since they were wrongfully terminated to arrange surety financing to cover the money the city says it cannot pay to finish the project. The surety is still investigating and by engaging the architect yesterday removed a serious road block to the effort to restart construction. Without the architect, no one can figure out how much it is going to cost to complete the work because no one knows the scope of the work to be corrected or completed.
Once the architectural work is completed, then Centerplan can get pricing from subcontractors to determine the cost and schedule to complete the project.
Centerplan and Arch have been meeting with subcontractors to determine as much as possible how much money it will take to restart and complete the project. To be sure everyone has been focused on the restart of construction, Centerplan filed a lawsuit to compel the city to mediate the dispute regarding restarting construction. It was not until the court scheduled a conference after the suit was filed that any meaningful progress was made toward restarting the construction. It was just before the conference with the court that the city committed to pay the architect amounts the surety and Centerplan dispute. Centerplan commenced a suit against the Yard Goats to force its owner to stop interfering in the process.
There are many hurdles left to jump over but for now, as a tentative target, the goal is that construction can recommence in September, after Labor Day. Centerplan is doing everything possible to meet that goal. It will take cooperation from Arch, Centerplan, the architect, the city, the Yard Goats, and subcontractors to meet that goal.
