CANTLON’S CORNER: XL CENTER ENTERS CRITICAL FINAL MONTHS
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – When the legislative session ends next month, there will be a better picture of the future of the XL Center.
What is yet to be decided will be in terms of the ability of the state to provide the money to start the planning and design concepts of a renovated XL Center, or will the countdown start for the eventual end of the building in the next two to three years.
The state Bond Commission began to hand money for project requests two weeks ago. The XL Center received none and for a reason.
“The XL Center funds have to be authorized as part of the budget before they can get to the bond commission,” CRDA Executive Director, Mike Freimuth said.
On Thursday afternoon, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy stopped by to tour the ongoing work to replace the 42-year-old XL Center’s outmoded and aging ice making facility. Malloy was there to renew his call for funding the reboot of the arena. Malloy stressed the importance of the building in the overall formula to economically jumpstart the city of Hartford.
“To make Hartford or any city livable, having a state of the art facility is a part of the equation. The vitality of a building is important to the city,” Malloy said.
Malloy stressed, in dire terms, the budget battle that rages on and his bond request, which has already reduced the necessity of getting that portion.
“The systems are failing here. We have put forth, with the CRDA, a modernization plan that we believe will work. If you don’t put enough money into those various stages, what you’ll end up with is more years. Now, more years means more construction inflation, means more events not taking place in the facility, means a disruption in usage as well as the cost.” the Governor said in an early afternoon press conference on the interior concourse of the XL Center.
Malloy reiterated that the project, which is considered to be a capital budget item because the state presently has no budget, that without a budget, it’s hard to talk about the future. Factor in the ever increasing state debt and the spending for this project will be held to a very high standard for consideration given the size and scope of the requests.
Work continues to progress after a vote of $70 million from a key legislative committee. The $70M is less than the requested $125 million which will be voted on by the General Assembly and accepted by the governor. The total can be modified, accepted as is, or rejected altogether. Things are still in the negotiating stage.
The CRDA is going full steam ahead under the assumption that they will get the $70-$75 million. They have formally issued RFQ’s (Request for Qualifications) and Expressions of Interest for Developers (EID) for the redevelopment of the XL Center and associated properties as of Monday, May 8th.
This is part of a two-phase process to select a developer for the renovation. The purpose selection specifically lists a public-private partnership (called PPP) that will be reviewed by a selection committee which includes Stafford Sports who handled the marketplace demographic analysis included in their arena proposals concepts unveiled over a year-and-a-half ago.
The committee will review the RFQ’s and develop a short list. Those on that short list will be asked in Phase II to submit an RFP (Request for Proposals) which is a detailed redevelopment plan based on the specs presented to the respondents that are selected.
The time frame includes a Deadline for Questions to be submitted started on Friday, May 19 at 3:00 pm. Responses provided to applicants questions will be done by Friday, May 26th at 3:00 pm. Then RFQ Responses that are fully completed are due by June 9th at 3:00 pm. The full RFQ procedures and requirements are contained in a nine-page document for applicants to follow.
“We have received about 20-25 questions regarding as of last Friday. They want to know what will work or what won’t work (regarding the project). We will expect the final submittals by the 9th. It’s time to evaluate a company’s strengths, work history, financials, and legal structures. We have a variety of issues to review and tackle,” said Freimuth.
One of the new intriguing angles being taken to keep the XL Center renovation project alive is going to be the private financing route. They’ll need that to secure the monies that clearly don’t exist in the state government. However, it’s not that simple, creating a public-private partnership.
The first thing the CRDA has to do, as a quasi-state agency, is to revive an expired state statute that would allow for the CRDA to have the ability to seek private financing in the case of the XL Center.
How the statute is written will be key to going to the marketplace to seek the serious capital for the tremendous costs associated with not only the renovating of the building but the purchase of the atrium area from Northland Corporation, and the demolition costs–neither of which has been publicly specified. Also, the question arises as to who will have to control of the disbursement of funds? What will be the priorities be for the spending of those funds? Will it be controlled by the public or private side? Or, will there need to be some sort of dual authority over the bidding process for a future developer?
“The language of the statute didn’t expire, but the time to use it did. The nuance here is to extend the date. You extend the language certainly it will have to be tweaked in some ways. The debate is how to tweak the old language. This is in part some of the representation you make within the process (RFQ) going forward and it’s maybe premature to change the statute at this point until we know what we’re going to do (with the building). We’re not going to put the cart before the horse on this one, because of the money, and I don’t want to possibly have to do it twice.
“Because if you have an outline A, B, C, and you get into a proposed organizational or legal structure (potential public-private partnership) that we like, but (the statue) doesn’t fit. Then I go, ‘Hey you remember I was here six months ago about this, well we gotta change a few things.’ I want to avoid that.”
What role will Spectra, still under a contract that was just extended to 2023, play as their payment and contract would be affected? How will the signed LOI (Letter of Intent) with UCONN be affected? Is it only enforceable if a new building is built? How will the relationship with MSG be going forward should such an agreement be crafted in the next 12-to-16-months? Will the building’s operating budget, already slashed in a four-year period from $3 million to $600K, be stabilized or further reduced in this budget cycle?
All these are major unknowns that might not come to pass if the current money passed as a procedural vote to start the renovation project are further cut or scrapped altogether.
The statute, if and when it is rewritten, not only has to protect the state, it has to be flexible enough for private investors to invest significant capital resources and expect a return on that investment. These are real factors and major hurdles the CRDA would have to clear for the XL Center needs to clear in order to survive.
The repair work on the rink by contractor Dimeo on a $3.5-$4 million upgrade is proceeding on pace to help the two main hockey tenants, the Hartford Wolf Pack and UCONN’s Hockey East program.
“It’s actually moving ahead quicker than expected, much more rapidly in part because we did some pre-work ahead of closing the building that helped us. What you see now is the top floor is gone and we’re raking it out. The insulation that was shot which was like liquid when we got to it. Now we’re making sure it is level and structurally sound to hold the second level and we hope to start laying new pipes by mid-June. Will put in new insulation around the pipes, laid a new concrete foundation, then we put in the new dasher boards and new glass. Right now we’re well within our calendar, a little ahead of schedule,” commented Freimuth.
However, the new system will be connected to the old chiller system located around the corner from the Zamboni entrance on the visiting locker room side. In the future, an area will need to be created to house a brand new chiller system for a future renovated arena. There was simply not enough funding to accommodate a new chiller system this time, even though they’re $750K- $1 million apiece for two chillers. That’s how tight the money squeeze is.
“We are going to use the current chiller system and we hope we will build a new chiller system. In our design, we have a place for that and we hope we will be building one under the lower bowl (straight down from the XL Center Lounge area on the concourse). We have it in our design,” Freimuth stated.
Another new addition, which nobody could anticipate in the wake of the terrorist attack in Manchester, England, is the atrium area and ticket window security will clearly be getting a thorough review and change for this fall.
“Sadly, we’re going to have to deal with this and it’s a wide range and array of security systems that will have to be put in place on top of all the new systems we’re planning on implementing. We have no choice after an event like that and everybody (in the arena and public venues) will be doing this.”
The clock continues to tick on the XL Center. The question is, will there be enough time to keep this plan and the XL Center alive?
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GERRY CANTLON
Leave a Reply