City leaders want to again alter the structure of the deal that would bring a proposed minor league ballpark to Hartford’s Downtown North neighborhood.
Under a plan unveiled Friday by Mayor Pedro E. Segarra and other officials that the city council will review and send to committee Monday evening, the city would create the Hartford Stadium Authority to finance the construction of the $60 million park through revenue bonds, and ultimately own it.
That’s a change from the current plan, which was to have development group DoNo Hartford LLC pay for the park, and then lease it to the city for nearly $4.3 million, with several 5 percent increases in later years. The city would in turn sublease the park to the New Britain Rock Cats.
The proposal does not appear to alter the retail, housing and restaurant elements of the Downtown North project, which has a total estimated price tag of $350 million.
The proposed arrangement, if approved, would shave between $10 million and $15 million off the project’s price tag, because an authority could borrow at lower interest rates than DoNo Hartford could, Segarra said in a statement.
The change echoes of Segarra’s original plan, first unveiled in June, for the city to borrow the money itself.
That plan drew criticism that the city couldn’t afford to borrow so much money, which led to officials structuring the public-private arrangement and selecting DoNo Hartford — led by Middletown’s Centerplan Development — as the city’s partner.
The council is expected to set a public hearing on the proposed ordinance for Jan. 20.
