The saga surrounding Hartford’s ill-fated minor league baseball stadium continued this week as a Connecticut Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the city paid too little for the land across from the stadium site.
The ruling, handed down by Judge Constance Epstein, means that the cost of the already over budget stadium development project will increase. The city acquired the land through the use of eminent domain, and paid just under $2 million to the land’s former owners, CBV Parking Hartford. Epstein found that appraisers failed to take into account that the land’s proximity to the baseball stadium would increase its value, and ordered the city to pay a total of $4.8 million, raising total costs by nearly $3 million.
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“The most astounding shortcoming of both of the City’s appraising experts is that neither of them took into account the announcement of the ballpark,” Epstein wrote in her ruling.
According to reports, the land in question is intended for mixed-use development, including retail, housing, restaurants and a grocery store.
Bart Halloran, CBV’s attorney in the case, said that his client didn’t merely own the property, but had its own plans to develop it.
“So, to take it away from him and give it to another developer…the process used by the previous administration was, to put it charitably, flawed,” Halloran told WNPR.
The city is reportedly considering an appeal.
Completion of Dunkin’ Donuts Park has been delayed by about a year, as the city wrestled with architects and insurance issues. The stadium project is reportedly set to be complete by April.
