It’s no secret economic development projects can be a tough slog in Connecticut. Whether it’s attempting to build a new minor league ballpark in the Capital City, or a billion-dollar residential-commercial development in Windsor’s Great Pond Village, new and significant developments can take years of planning and politicking before the first shovel sifts dirt.
Many projects often fail to see the light of day, overwhelmed by a tough and costly regulatory environment, the high cost of doing business in the state, and local politics.
In some cases, however, the slow process serves businesses and residents well, providing time for the necessary oversight to ensure developers have well thought-out plans that don’t leave taxpayers carrying all the risk. In that respect, citizen outrage over the Rock Cats’ planned move to Hartford has been a good thing, forcing city officials to re-think plans to finance a $60 million stadium fully on the backs of taxpayers.
There is a question of “How long is too long?” for a town or city to consider a proposed development before a project is abandoned. South Windsor officials need to start asking themselves that as they weigh the future of a proposed $100 million film studio, which has been planned since 2008, but still hasn’t broken ground.
It may be time to pull the plug on the deal.
South Windsor made headlines in 2009, when Hartford Business Journal first reported that a California developer was jockeying to build a 61-acre, state-of-the-art film studio on John Fitch Boulevard, originally slated as a $100 million project that would create as many as 2,000 permanent jobs and generate $400 million in annual spending.
That rosy economic outlook and the prospects of hosting class-A celebrities, directors, and films created much excitement and hope. Since then, the project has gone through a myriad of false starts, reconfigurations, and embarrassing tribulations.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell even presided over a much ballyhooed ground-breaking ceremony in 2010, attended by about 200 local, state and national dignitaries. That is about as much action the project site has seen.
The development’s most recent twist happened this spring, when the original developers — Rhode Island’s Halden Acquisition Group and California’s Pacifica Ventures — abandoned the project due to a myriad of financial issues.
Now, according to Manchester’s Journal Inquirer, dck North America, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh construction company dck Worldwide, has taken over the development. Dck already has run into its own issues.
About three weeks ago, according to the JI, dck proposed a much more scaled-down project. Then last week, they changed their mind and said it would be more economically feasible to push forward with the original plan that includes a hotel, movie studio, and fuel cell plant.
Now dck is looking for a partner with connections to the entertainment industry that could recruit movies to the studio, a role Pacifica Ventures was originally supposed to play.
South Windsor Town Manager Matthew Galligan and Mayor M. Saud Anwar remain hopeful that the project may still come together. But how much more time, resources, and brain power should the town exert to bring to fruition a development whose financial underpinnings appear shaky at best?
Developers have already determined that a movie studio in South Windsor on its own accord isn’t financially viable, which is why a fuel cell park was introduced into the project plan. It seems as though a lot of risky assumptions need to go right for the project to work.
A vibrant, new film studio that creates jobs and broader economic activity would be a good thing for the state and Greater Hartford. But if the deal is unworkable, it’s best to rip up the script and move on.
