What’s the biggest challenge in building a baseball stadium in Hartford? It’s not so much the physical difficulties. After all, construction companies are used to building in challenging environments. Nope, the biggest challenge is the increased scrutiny. Every step of the way this project is going to be under a microscope.
That’s the honest assessment of Bob Landino, CEO of Centerplan Cos. of Middletown. His firm is overseeing the construction and development of the new Double-A baseball stadium in downtown Hartford for the yet-to-be-named New Britain Rock Cats.
“It’s more than we are used to on a construction site,” Landino said of the heightened attention that comes with building a publicly financed ballpark.
The increased oversight doesn’t impact the construction schedule per se, but it does require additional staff to inform the stakeholders (i.e. local government, the media, and the public), adding to the project’s overall costs.
“That’s a big nuance that requires special attention. If we were building a high school or public safety facility, they don’t go through this kind of scrutiny,” Landino said. “It’s the nature of how it was originated and evolved. It’s been a subject of public interest.”
The final cost of the Downtown North development, including the ballpark, housing, retail and office space and parking, is expected to be $350 million.
The ballpark itself, which is being financed through a stadium authority, will cost $56 million. Centerplan is being paid to construct the stadium, but won’t have an ownership stake in it.
Landino said any baseball stadium project would be of intense interest, even if private dollars were financing it. “We are comfortable with the transparency. We are in a fish bowl because of what it is and where it is,” he added.
Another challenge is that the stadium design is still a work in progress. Ground was broken in mid-February, but designs have not been finalized.
Landino admitted it is somewhat unusual to not yet have a completed design in place even as construction crews begin to turnover dirt. He doesn’t think, however, it will have an impact on the project.
“We’re in a design-build environment,” he said. “[The design] is in the process of being completed, so we don’t lose time in construction.”
Missouri’s Pendulum Studio, which specializes in sports facilities and civic structures, is the stadium’s architect of record, but it’s working with The S/L/A/M Collaborative of Glastonbury and New Haven’s Newman Architects to design the stadium.
Jonathan O. Cole, a founding principal of Pendulum Studio, said the baseball business model has evolved drastically over the past 20 years from a “mom and pop” operation with a focus on the field of play to a much more strategic focus on affordable family entertainment and year-round facility use.
“Our collective vision for the ballpark reaches far beyond baseball,” Cole said. “This ballpark belongs to the community, therefore it is a community green space, and the epicenter from which surrounding development will radiate.”
Meanwhile, another challenge for Centerplan is the timetable. The clock is ticking towards Opening Day in mid-March 2016, when the new minor league franchise is scheduled to kickoff its inaugural season in Harford. Landino is, of course, confident the company will meet it. “One year from now we will be playing,” he said. Not that there is much of a choice. The schedule is set by the baseball league.
By late fall of this year, the park’s turf will be installed, so it has time to stabilize by spring 2016. The construction of the core of the ballpark takes place throughout next winter. In spring 2016, the turf will be restored, and then the team and construction firm will prepare the facility to open.
But, the stadium itself won’t be fully finished by Opening Day. It will be a stadium in progress.
“We will complete the punch list while the stadium is open,” Landino said. “There will be stuff to do through May or June [of 2016]. Our goal is to make it usable for the team and public. But you can’t do landscaping and other projects in the winter. We will work around the game schedule.”
The other challenges for the stadium are more routine, Landino said. Building in any urban environment can be difficult.
Some of the unique challenges of the Hartford stadium site include its clay base. The Downtown North site, at the corner of Main and Trumbull streets, has poor soil conditions from the outwash of the Connecticut River. The clay base will make construction more difficult to manage and Centerplan will have to pour a special foundation to deal with the conditions.
“It’s a physical challenge and not one that we didn’t expect,” Landino said.n
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