The day after the developer that was fired from building the new Hartford baseball team filed a court motion asking a judge to stop all construction at the ballpark, the owner of the baseball team the park is being built for has responded and is asking a judge to deny the motion that would further delay work on the park.
The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters broke the story yesterday about how the former developer, Centerplan Construction, is asking a judge to allow the company to “preserve” evidence in its lawsuit against the city by not allowing work to resume at Dunkin Donuts Park.
The park was supposed to be completed this past Spring, in time for the Hartford Yard Goats to play their inaugural season at a new ballpark, but there were several delays and the park is still not finished.
Centerplan was fired from the project and Arch Insurance, the surety that guarantees completion of the project, hired Whiting-Turner Construction as the new general contractor.
The goal is for the park to be completed by next spring, in time for the Yard Goats to play in Hartford next season, and officials from Arch told the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters that work at the ballpark is scheduled to begin next week.
In a filing today, the Yard Goats say Centerplan has had more than sufficient time to document the quality of work and state of completion since getting fired from the project in June.
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They went on to call Centerplan's motion an attempt to get a “settlement of their bogus claims and to obscure” and said “the plaintiffs are and were incompetent or worse.”
Hartford mayor Luke Bronin responded on Thursady night about Centerplan's motion to delay construction sand said Centerplan’s latest lawsuit has no legal basis and is a non-issue.
“We look forward to working with the new contractor, Whiting-Turner,” Bronin said. “A responsible company with a great reputation and extensive experience building stadiums."
In July, Centerplan filed a lawsuit against the City of Hartford and the owner of the Yard Goats. They said they are looking for an injunction against the city because it did not use the proper dispute resolution channels laid out in their joint agreement before the city fired them.
