Attorneys for the town of Manchester and the former developers of the Parkade site are locked in disagreement over whether a deal between the two sides is null and void.
Developer Michael Licamele, who is a principal of the Easton-based Manchester Parkade 1 LLC, the Parkade’s former developer, said he and his partner, Harry Freeman, would fight the town’s recent decision to pull the plug on negotiations for redevelopment of the Broad Street property that once held a retail plaza.
“Unfortunately, while we have worked together in good faith, the developer struggled to move the project forward,” Mayor Jay Moran said in a news release announcing the town’s decision to end negotiations last month. “We were hopeful we could work out a new agreement after the original development agreement expired, but it is now clear that the project as envisioned was not progressing as we had hoped.”
The JI obtained a series of letters between attorneys for the town and the developers. In the first letter, dated Jan. 24, Assistant Town Attorney Tim O’Neil notified Licamele that the town’s agreement with his company was “null and void” due to the “passage of time and the actions and inactions of the parties.”
David Shufrin, the developer’s attorney, replied a day later saying his client disagrees with the town’s claim, and remains “ready, willing, and able to hold the initial closing as called for in the development agreement.”
“It is our hope that the Town feels the same way and will honor its commitments under the development agreement,” Shufrin wrote.
Shufrin also said the town failed to give the developer an official notice of default, which is a statement sent by one contract party to notify another that the latter was in default by failing to fulfill the terms of an agreement, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.
Responding to Shufrin’s Jan. 25 letter, Kevin McEleney, an attorney with Updike, Kelly & Spellacy who represents Manchester, wrote Feb. 4 that the town didn’t have to give official notice because the developers committed a “breach” of the agreement when they admitted that they couldn’t obtain the proper financing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The breach effectively discharged the town from any future contract liability, McEleney said.
McEleney, who heads the firm’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group, also wrote that agreement “had a clear deadline and the town repeatedly expressed to the developer the importance of closing and promptly commencing redevelopment of the Parkade.”
The town and Manchester Parkade I signed a development agreement in April 2021, which was extended twice but lapsed last September prior to the developer securing the necessary financing to close on the property, the news release said.
“It is completely unreasonable,” McEleney wrote, “for (the) developer to request a closing in February 2022, approximately five months after the agreement expired.”
McEleney added: “Given that the agreement is no longer in effect, the town reserves the right to pursue any and all alternatives for development of the Parkade.”
Last month, Licamele called the town’s decision to part ways “one of the biggest mistakes, if not the biggest mistake, that the government of the town of Manchester has ever made.”
Licamele said Monday his company has yet to take any legal action against the town, but “we feel we’re on very strong legal footing here.”
“There’s nothing I want to do more than move forward with the project,” Licamele said. “If we were to file suit … we wouldn’t be suing for damages, we would be suing to just do the project.”
