All eyes in Hartford are on the new minor league baseball stadium, but that’s not the only thing that’s a cause for concern in the $350 million downtown development project.
Hartford is still fighting a land owner who said he’s owed a lot more money than what he got when the city seized his property.
The trial in state court, which began in February, is now officially over. A decision from a judge is pending, but it all comes down to this: the city used eminent domain to take various properties from a downtown land owner, and it gave him $1.9 million as compensation. But the land owner said that’s not enough -- and he’s hoping a judge will give his company as much as $3 million more.
The properties, which have been used as surface parking lots, are just across the street from the new baseball stadium. They could eventually be part of a mixed-use project to be built by the stadium's developer, Centerplan Companies, which is leasing the land from the city.
Efforts to reach attorneys for the city and the former landowner, Covered Bridge Ventures, were unsuccessful. But both sides laid out their legal arguments in closing briefs to the court last week.
CBV’s principal, P.J. Yeatman, said he bought the properties in 2012 at a deep discount: $375,000. His plan was to hold on to them until the time was right to develop them. His appraisers said the properties should be valued at around $5 million.
Meanwhile, the city argued that the $1.9 million it has already paid should suffice. One question will be whether the value of the properties should be affected by the new, $60 million stadium across the street.
The judge in the case has three months to rule.