Yard Goats Are Getting The State's Glory... And Money

[ct06111]

Sports Venue Projects Devour Trust Along With Cash

This one is dated 10/25/15. Middle of article. Jacobs asked if 2k or 3k seats could be added to upgrade to AAA. Solomon said yes, and that should be in jail Thomas Deller said NO. Deller was also in charge of the Dillion mess. He's now fired, but I could see him and his cronies in Hartford govt got kickbacks from both Dillon and the Baseball stadium. Deller didn't even try for AAA cause he probably couldn't have done it behind closed doors and be a "done deal". I've posted this before, but Larry lucchino should buy out Solomon and move Pawtucket to Hartford. He was good at the Yawkeeway development around Fenway. Dunkin donuts is already a major sponsor of the Red Sox. Having a AAA rivalry with sox and Yankees would be sweet in Hartford. Central CT has fans of both and you could attract more CT redsox fans to go to both AAA and majors and by also sorta moving in on Yankee territory

Back to AA park...
What a about that outfit IFG? They were supposed to be in charge of keeping centerplan on budget and on time. How much did we pay them?
They were supposed to be the stadium authority eyes and ears on the timeline.
The courant, the authority, bronin never bring them up. What's up with that?

http://www.ifgroup.cc

 

[CL82]

I counted on the city and the stadium authority to select and work hand-in-hand with the correct developer. Instead a no-bid contract went out to a developer that never built a ballpark before. That alone should have sent off flares shooting into the Asylum Street night.

This. It never ceases to amaze me how often local government makes genuinely horrific decisions that are obviously going to fail.

I think Jeff's right that this maybe the last nail in coffin for the XL renovation.

 

[ct06111]

XL and Rent Expansion? : CRDA/State Project that people want
Dunkin Donuts Park? : City Project no one wanted.
Dillon Stadium? : City Project that people wanted, but corrupt officials ruined it by giving blank checks away to felons with no oversight

Jacobs and Supporters of XL and Rent Expansion have to teach average joe the difference.

 

[FartMan69]

XL and Rent Expansion? : CRDA/State Project that people want
Dunkin Donuts Park? : City Project no one wanted.
Dillon Stadium? : City Project that people wanted, but corrupt officials ruined it by giving blank checks away to felons with no oversight

Jacobs and Supporters of XL and Rent Expansion have to teach average joe the difference.

Trust me the public does not want 250 million thrown at the XL or any public project, if you think residents in Fairfield County care about the differences between the stadium and XL or want public dollars going into a white elephant they never go to I don't know what to tell you. This article is spot on.

 

[CL82]

I think the Rent is a different case. Sure attendance hasn't been great lately, but if we have success we'd be around 38K consistently. If expanding it is a requirement for P5 membership, it would happen in heartbeat because it would make economic sense.

The XL Center, from what I've seen, has virtually no shot a decent ROI. I'd be sad to see it go, as I have a lot great memories there, but if the CRDA wants to save it they need to come up with a business plan that is more than UConn games and wishful thinking.

 

[UCFBfan]

The article is spot on and I fear that sports projects in Hartford are gone for quite some time.....

What I'm curious about is what is going to happen to UConn basketball in all this? The wolfpack or whatever AHL team plays there will probably leave and whatever....ok....but now what happens to UConn? Do they play all their games in Gampel? I love Gampel but it's not exactly the top of the line building it may have once been....So I think the XL project is a mighty big problem. UConn is a major sports entity in this state and without the XL, I wonder what will happen.

 

[FartMan69]

The article is spot on and I fear that sports projects in Hartford are gone for quite some time....

What I'm curious about is what is going to happen to UConn basketball in all this? The wolfpack or whatever AHL team plays there will probably leave and whatever....ok....but now what happens to UConn? Do they play all their games in Gampel? I love Gampel but it's not exactly the top of the line building it may have once been....So I think the XL project is a mighty big problem. UConn is a major sports entity in this state and without the XL, I wonder what will happen.

I'd place money on the state keeping the status quo, throwing money at minor repairs just to keep the lights on. Yes that is a recipe for throwing money down the drain but this "transformation" is a pie in the sky dream with this state.

 

[Stray_Dog]

Hartford stealing a successful minor league team from another CT city wasn't something that was worth public financial support. Hartford also has a poor history of building things. It's not a surprise that this has blown up in their face.

The development industry in/around Hartford makes Trump look honest. We are over 15 years into the development at Rentschler, Front Street is underwhelming, the Colt area has been disappointing, etc.

....and Trickory...is honest!!!! Politics this year is going to be very polarizing!

 

[ct06111]

Centerplan created a website to explain the ballpark mess:
Finishtheballpark.com

 

[storrsroars]

A YardGoat actually made MLB.com.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Centerplan created a website to explain the ballpark mess:
Finishtheballpark.com

And it says right there at the bottom that the company was supposed to itemize the pricing for the new stuff, but then the city turned around and claimed the developer should have just eaten it.

 

[SubbaBub]

Looking at the documents, this looks like a lot of spin on the part of DoNo. That's not saying the City and the Architect don't hold a lot of liability here, they do, but what they posted and what they didn't post leads me to believe this is mostly about PR for a major developer in the state. One of two of the changes might have had a fatal impact on the schedule depending where they were in the construction, but mostly those changes look cosmetic or code based. Finding fault will be an item by item process and chances are it will touch everyone. I doubt DoNo is clean on this.

I do have to lol pretty hard at DoNo suggesting political connections of the Architect, when I'd bet my last donut that a business like Centerplan, which built it's business heavily around political activity wasn't brought on board in part because of who they know. How many ballparks had they built previously? And they wanted to build one in a downtown setting on an accelerated schedule? Doomed to fail comes to mind.

It's not always as easy as it looks, people. Credentials and expericence matter and projects can't always bend to political timelines. That's why the major professional leagues demand a stadium be in place before granting a team.

 

[TheDoggPound]

There is recent precedence of similar sized ballparks being built on even shorter timelines. Centerplan was in over their heads, either willfully or inept they came back to the city for more funds, they missed 2 deadlines, there was no guarantee they wouldn't need even more $ to complete what they were contracted to fulfill and they lost the season regardless.

The City had no choice, especially when the contractor is out there in public telling the media the ballpark is 95-97% completed but yet wouldn't give tours of the concourse or virtually anything other than the field because nothing in the interior of the ballpark is even closed to built.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Looking at the documents, this looks like a lot of spin on the part of DoNo. That's not saying the City and the Architect don't hold a lot of liability here, they do, but what they posted and what they didn't post leads me to believe this is mostly about PR for a major developer in the state. One of two of the changes might have had a fatal impact on the schedule depending where they were in the construction, but mostly those changes look cosmetic or code based. Finding fault will be an item by item process and chances are it will touch everyone. I doubt DoNo is clean on this.

I do have to lol pretty hard at DoNo suggesting political connections of the Architect, when I'd bet my last donut that a business like Centerplan, which built it's business heavily around political activity wasn't brought on board in part because of who they know. How many ballparks had they built previously? And they wanted to build one in a downtown setting on an accelerated schedule? Doomed to fail comes to mind.

It's not always as easy as it looks, people. Credentials and expericence matter and projects can't always bend to political timelines. That's why the major professional leagues demand a stadium be in place before granting a team.

They had to add in multiple entire kitchens. That's neither cosmetic nor code-based.

 

[SubbaBub]

They had to add in multiple entire kitchens. That's neither cosmetic nor code-based.

It's also not a reason to delay the opening of the facility if that's what you wanted to do. Presuming there were adequate kitchen's included in the original package. Like I said, you'll need to go item by item. When something goes wrong on a construction project, there is plenty of ammunition to point fingers at someone else. The truth is that some things are critical for the delay and some aren't. That is for the lawyers and the bond holders to sort out.

But, if the goal was to make a milestone opening date, then extra kitchens isn't on my list of critical path items to finish. The second after that decision came down the following second should have generated the question, "How does this affect the opening?" The answer was either it will or it won't. If it will, then it isn't going to get done until afterwards. If it won't, they the obligation to finish is on the construction team. It smells like an after the fact excuse.

It's easy enough for DoNo to substantiate. Show the letter dated within days of the order that says, this change will delay the opening. I didn't see that on the website. It's construction management 101 to document this kind of stuff. My assumption is that these changes were made well before the change directives officially came down and the developer had draft copies of the documents necessary to do the work, blew the timeline and it pointing to this correspondence as cover. As stand alone exhibits, it supports DoNo's case but I doubt these are the only documents relevant to the delay.

 

[ct06111]

https://cbshartford.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/joe-d-and-gresh-w-bob-landino-6-16-16.mp3?_=3

The interview w/ Gresh and Landino is interesting. I didn't hear the Josh Solomon interview. The whole website is made to paint them in a better picture than the courant and other media has.

No matter what, there's plenty of blame to go around. City, Josh, Centerplan, IFG, SLAM, and the other architect firm.
Josh and the city knew if they didn't get all the goodies and extra cosmetic stuff now, they would never get the $$$ for it. That's why they put all those change orders in before the deadline.

What I don't like:
is that josh was the final guy to say whether or not to accept, open and handover the ballpark to himself. He shouldn't make that decision.
I agree w/ landino on that one. Games are played no earlier than like 3 pm.
Have all the cosmetic stuff and other stuff done before batting practice. But josh wanted it completely done before getting the keys.
I'm sorry, I think the building officials whether safety, fire, code officers etc, found stuff just to delay it further. 70'new exit signs that weren't complaint in the design drawing and now have to be lowered? The railings around HVAC?
Everyone dropped the ball way back in 2015 and everyone was late to the finger pointing and blame game. People involved needed to admit to fault and mistakes made way earlier in the process.

 

[SubbaBub]

Correct, a building or in this case a ballpark, isn't an airplane or a submarine where you kinda need all the pieces completed before you use it. A temporary CO was certainly a possibility, especially if it is a city facility.

I have no doubt that funding issues played into this. If the team is on the field, then the question of why are we still spending money on construction was going to come up. Reminds me of the old adage about what gets built first on new military bases, the officer's club because if you run out of money you can get more for the barracks and hospital.

That said, it's clear there was a lack of communication and consensus amongst the project team, which you absolutely need if you are going to make a tight deadline. FWIW, all the media attention isn't helping the situation. By asking the question of when is it going to be done right from the get go, it has a tendency to send everyone into CYA mode from day 1. Under different circumstances an agreement could have been reached to get the park open on time and make everyone whole at the end. It never sounded like everyone was on the same page. The questionable funding source and lack of an in place plan for the park started this whole thing off on the wrong foot. Hartford wanted a team, has to enter a hasty behind the back deal with the Rock Cats, shot from the hip on the entire endeavor and here we are.

 

[Bezzz]

Just a little anecdotal evidence. I'm an architect and I happen to drive by the park last week. While stopped at a traffic light I could see into a stairwell. I was shocked to see the handrail didn't meet the building code. Such a simple thing to get wrong.

 

[uconnfan68]

It is worse, we're spending $65m for 6k

Well, we spent 10x that for a short bus route.

 

[UC313]

If you're still sending in RFI's in March and they're not being responded to until late April something's wrong. The last April addendum with what appeared to be about 30 drawing revisions is ugly. At that point in time it needed to be punch list items.

IMO everyone is at fault. The city, the GC and the owner were all behind the 8 ball from the get go. Design changes, additions, erroneous documents seemed to play the major part. A design build is only as good as the subs working on it and their management. I cant for the life of me figure out how a project of this magnitude went out as design build on MEP's. With a time line like that you needed bullet proof documents and drawings. I cant imagine the job meeting as the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire suppression contractors tried to figure out who was going to put what where without interfering with one anothers work. Good luck coordinating those CAD drawings and delivering them on time from 4 different subs.

This whole project was rushed too soon.

 

[UC313]

If you're still sending in RFI's in March and they're not being responded to until late April something's wrong. The last April addendum with what appeared to be about 30 drawing revisions is ugly. At that point in time it needed to be punch list items.

IMO everyone is at fault. The city, the GC and the owner were all behind the 8 ball from the get go. Design changes, additions, erroneous documents seemed to play the major part. A design build is only as good as the subs working on it and their management. I cant for the life of me figure out how a project of this magnitude went out as design build on MEP's. With a time line like that you needed bullet proof documents and drawings. I cant imagine the job meeting as the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire suppression contractors tried to figure out who was going to put what where without interfering with one anothers work. Good luck coordinating those CAD drawings and delivering them on time from 4 different subs.

This whole project was rushed too soon.