A Texas-based consultancy that specializes in studying event facilities has again been hired to examine the financials and future opportunities of downtown Hartford’s aging XL Center.
The board of directors of the quasi-public Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which oversees the 16,000-seat arena with Spectra Venue Management, voted unanimously Thursday night to rehire Conventions, Sports & Leisure International (CSL) to perform a new market demand and financial feasibility study of the venue.
CSL is expected to begin studying the arena’s operational expenses and ticket forecasting in the coming weeks before submitting its report to CRDA by year-end, according to CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth. The study will cost $85,000, Freimuth said.
CRDA staff recommended CSL over seven other bids solicited through a request for proposal (RFP) process.
CSL was hired in 2006 by the former Connecticut Development Authority (CDA) to evaluate the operational effectiveness of then Hartford Civic Center. A year later, the city of Hartford hired architecture firm Populous to team with CSL to evaluate the arena for replacement. The city again hired CSL in 2012 to update its redevelopment program, Freimuth said.
This year’s study will take a look at CRDA’s recent work at the venue conducted alongside consultancy Stafford Sports, he said.
CSL, which has experience studying some of the nation’s most notable arenas, stadiums and ballparks, also previously examined downtown’s convention market and was involved in the pursuit of bringing the New England Patriots to the Capital City in the late 1990s.
Freimuth said an updated feasibility study was requested by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and UConn, which is especially concerned about potential investments and viability of the arena given its pending move to the Big East Conference by July 2020.
The study will begin as state lawmakers have been unwilling to back major investments to spur future renovations at the 44-year-old arena. The venue typically draws annual operating losses, largely offset by the state, of $1.5 million to $2 million.
“If they [CSL] come back and tell us the exact same thing…or come back and gives us a fresher look, we’ll try to reconcile it, and it gives the governor and his team a fresh set of eyes to look at what we have done over the last couple years,” Freimuth said.
Meantime, the study could also encourage a potential public-private partnership that would help relieve the state and taxpayers from shouldering future investments.
“This is a firm that has the credibility of the market from an equity-investors perspective,” David Lehman, the former Goldman Sachs executive leading the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said at Thursday’s CRDA meeting. “I’m hoping we get a better answer, but I think we need this as a first step to entertain public-private partnership.”
Also Thursday, Freimuth reported that Northland Investment Corp., which owns a key section of XL Center’s atrium and adjoining retail/office space, has declined CRDA’s latest offer to takeover the ground-level area.
Freimuth said negotiations with Northland, one of downtown’s largest developers and landlords, will continue with support from Lehman.
Earlier this year, the XL Center returned to the national spotlight hosting the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1998.
