The Rockies’ AA affiliate Hartford Yard Goats are performing well enough in their first season, and sit in third place in the Eastern League, but the Connecticut club’s stadium situation is a different story. To make matters worse, the mayor and developers are blaming each other for the fiasco.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced Monday that the city had fired developers DoNo Hartford LLC and Centerplan for falling behind deadlines on the $63 million Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Meanwhile, DoNo Hartford LLC manager Jason Rudnick blames the city for constantly adding new plans and changes to the project, which required more work.
Centerplan claims that it has received about 100 design change orders from the city since January, but the city said that the developers knew there would be added requests as the project went along. From the Hartford Courant:
“There were a number of things that our inspectors found that were simply not done right, that were not done to code,” Bronin said. The notion that the city was the problem because it notified the developer of the building code violations “is just patently absurd,” he said.
Rudnick also had harsh words for Josh Solomon, the Yard Goats’ owner. Rudnick charged that Solomon has known about the design changes all along.
Rudnick said one change order called for 50 more TVs and another sought a “barn door” for one of the luxury suites.
Speaking of Solomon, Rudnick said, “If you don’t think he’s been manipulating this the whole time, you’re fooling yourself.”
No one will be working on the park while Arch Insurance, the project’s surety, looks into the dispute. The Yard Goats played home games at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, but according to the team’s schedule, after a June 7-12 road trip, Hartford will play its three-game “home” series against the Fightin Phils in Reading, Penn.
H/t to Mike
