CANTLON’S CORNER: HOW TO SAVE THE XL CENTER 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – As the hot summer is fading off into a crisp fall, the upcoming state elections in November will bring significant changes in all levels of state government. Among the first order of business for the new elected Governor and legislature will be what they decide to do about the XL Center.

A plan to save the building is the only viable option left on or under the table at this point.

To accomplish that however, the plan needs to be scaled back.

The plan should be to change the XL Center from a 17-18,000+ seat arena and convert it to a 10-12,000 capacity building. The hard fact is that Hartford doesn’t have the economic or population base and in more general terms, the political or financial ability to build one. Build the new building near the baseball stadium inside the city.

The smaller arena will save the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack and the UConn Hockey East program from leaving. It will also help both the men’s and women’s UConn basketball programs and advance the proposed new housing construction not to mention the new shops planned in and around the Dunkin’ Donuts ballpark area.

Despite the cries from some fans to bring back the Hartford Whalers, to be completely blunt, IT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN! Examine the renovation of the 55-year-old Seattle KeyArena. That project is set to start this fall. The cost has skyrocketed from $600 to $700 million dollars. Then add to that expense the NHL expansion fee of $650 million. Their franchise application is likely to be granted in December. That’s a cost of $1.4 billion that will be spent before even the first puck is dropped; the first beer poured, or the first jersey sold. The City of Hartford and The State of Connecticut do not NEARLY have that kind of money available to spend.

That $1.4 BILLION still doesn’t take into account the cost of building a new practice facility or the purchasing an AHL franchise.

The focus of the fans and the state government should be on what level and type of franchise have the ability to be successful. That would be the Double AA baseball team and a Triple AAA hockey team. They should do that and put their resources in as an intelligent fashion as possible.

Remember, change is inevitable. The New Haven Coliseum has been gone for 12 years. Two weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox announced that in two years time, the owners of their Triple AAA franchise who have been in the same place for 45 years, under their owners who have controlled the team the last four years, are moving the team to Worcester, MA to a proposed brand new stadium.

Changes happen.

Currently, Hartford is working with RMS Corporation of New Canaan on a massive $200 million proposal for buildings and shops in and around Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Behind closed doors, they’re in negotiations with the city which includes a proposed for a 99-year lease.

The time for prudent and cautious action is now.

For the CRDA to continue to fight with Larry Gottesdeiner and Northland Corporation about the XL Center is a waste of resources (money), time, and blood pressure points. The CRDA didn’t create the mess as it presently exists. During the tenure of the late Mayor, Mike Peter’s administration, the selling of the mall to build Hartford 21 foolishly ceded a portion of the XL Center atrium to the developer. In a secret side deal with Northland, the results giving the city (and state) with the consequences today. The fruitless negotiations with Northland have already added two additional years to an already extended and elongated process and frayed tensions between the parties.

Eminent domain is a serious option still very much on the table but it contains too many landmines to be attempted with the clock not being in the CRDA’s favor.

Both political parties and all the tenants of the XL Center need to be in on this process, operating on separate islands will not help the cause. Everybody has to give something to make the process work.

The first and immediate need is the land. The city should designate Parcel A and B, both across the street from Dunkin’ Donuts Park, as the immediate priority for the site of a scaled-back new arena. Parcel A provides good highway access and with Parcel B nearby as a possible surface parking lot or garage for the arena.

The city owns the building now.

The tenants will have to give up something in their lease arrangements to help keep the costs in line to make the building’s finances work. UConn, in particular, must drop the LOI agreement they signed several years ago as it was written for a larger building.

To use the agreement in a smaller venue would only make for a serious debt, in the new building right off the bat. The union, who operates in the building, will have to give back and make concessions on its contracts to make the building a viable entity. The heady days of the 1980’s and 1990’s are over.

The current Governor, Dannel Malloy, can help this process along as a lasting good legacy move as his time in office comes to an end. The Governor should go to Hartford Mayor, Luke Bronin, with a straight-forward, hard-ball politics deal while making it clear that the city had just bailed the city out to the tune of $550 million of its debt and the Church Street parking garage two years ago. That gave the city a one-time budget fix of $16 million.

The city of Hartford must designate these two spots for the scaled down, but brand new XL Center. Remember Bronin’s predecessor, Mayor Pedro Segarra, who – in secret – negotiated away the spot for the baseball stadium instead of a new XL Center. This fact should also be spoken by the Governor to the Mayor in no uncertain terms.

It’s factually correct.

The city has started the discussions with RMS on a six-year phased project that includes 800 mixed-use apartments in and around the proposed area along Trumbull Street and Market Street, plus Main and Trumbull Street. Ground level retail is in the proposal. What better walk-up than having an arena with people walking and parking to the arena?

Coffee shops, new restaurants, and art galleries are fantastic ideas, but a new XL Center would be a much better solution to the equation.

Main, Ann Ucello, and High Streets, are also slated to be part of this project. It encompasses an enormous amount of square footage. If the proposed and sorely-needed, 30,000 square foot grocery store is added, the project can encompass a new smaller, scaled down arena too.

The new arena, which had a $250 million price tag, for a large scale building has expired. It’s obsolete because the cost of borrowing money has gone up, as well as the cost of materials for construction have gone up and labor costs have also increased. To keep this project from spiraling out of budgetary control a pivot to a smaller arena proposal should be exercised.

The price tag proposed for the building project by RMS is $200 million. That’s a massive amount of money that will also include federal dollars and grants as well as the CRDA negotiating a loan at an unspecified amount and terms at this point. The city should beared in mind the issues with Gottesdiener and Northland and his problems in New Haven when the city tossed all its eggs in his one basket.

It didn’t work out as expected.

Through thorough and complete negotiations, no unseen side deals and other goodies, the city council has some serious due diligence to do and needs to take in account all of Hartford, especially the XL Center in a final proposal.

The “sale” of the XL Center is major long shot at best with Oak Street Realty Capital LLC. This smaller arena proposal might provide the most probability of success. The clock is ticking and its getting closer to striking midnight than it is in signaling a new dawn.