Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • June 29, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Having an impact is vital to Hopgood from page 1 hall that anchors downtown. Renovating as new for $250 million or tearing it down and rebuilding at double the price are options on the table so far. CRDA oversees XL, along with the downtown convention center and Rent- schler Field in East Hartford. Appointed three years ago by the governor to chair the then newly created CRDA, Hop- good, who has lived most of her work life in Hartford, admits its speedy track record shep- herding renewal projects from concept to con- struction and occupancy surprised even her. "It vastly exceeds what I thought we'd be able to accomplish,'' Hopgood said inside the downtown high-rise condo overlooking Bushnell Park and the State Capitol that she shares with husband Frank Lord. It's also headquarters for her corporate-workout/ crisis consultancy, The Hopgood Group LLC. Noteworthy, too, she said, is the diversity of projects already developed, being built or pro- posed in Hartford and a couple of suburban com- munities that are underway or in the pipeline. Hopgood, 66, insists that as chair, her role is more like a conductor, ensuring her fellow direc- tors at the quasi-public agency have all they need to make an informed decision as to the dozens of development proposals that come before them. That means, she said, relying on CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth and his staff to answer board members' ques- tions about deals and assemble the projects' details into the briefing packages directors get before each mid-monthly board meet- ing. CRDA has regularly put skin in the game through loans to developers. Freimuth is the same one credited with stoking downtown Stamford's economic revival during Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's time as mayor in that city. "I've never worked with anybody who can get as much done as he can,'' Hopgood said. "He has the ability to get the most com- plicated deals over the finish line. I'm in awe because I know how complicated it is.'' The feeling is mutual, Freimuth says. "She gives me all the support I need,'' he said. "She has the staff's back. She has built a comfort level with the staff and defers to the staff when [things] get into the weeds. She is able to communicate critical informa- tion that is big picture and little. She's street- smart when it comes to community issues.'' Freimuth says there are two things about Hopgood that he appreciates most. "She has an impeccable memory,'' he said, "especially when it comes to the history of properties — the Sonesta Hotel [now Spectra Boutique Apartments], the XL, or the Goodwin [Square office tower/hotel]. She has that insti- tutional memory that she can contribute.'' The other is her negotiating skills. On CRDA's real estate deals, "she's probably more comfort- able and can analyze the rates of return as good as anybody,'' Freimuth said. Her skills were on display, Freimuth said, in one of CRDA's more complex financing deals involving conversion of the former Bank of America building at 777 Main into high-rise apartments. "We had to constantly modify and hone our package of assistance to meet a variety of demands and expectations of the other funding sources, and also keep our very large investment optimized,'' he said. "Suzanne's rather savvy real estate skills were critical in assessing our options." Track record Hopgood's financial and crisis-management expertise has won her past and present board seats at more than a dozen private and public companies, most outside Connecticut. She joined Houlihan's Restaurant Group, owner of J. Gilbert's Wood-Fired Steaks, as president and CEO in 2000, two years before the casual-dining chain filed bankruptcy. Hired to turn the chain around, she was successful, she says, until the 9/11 terror attacks shook the U.S. economy, a final, fatal blow to the company's fortunes. Hou- lihan's is now property of a private-equity firm. Before Houlihan's, as CEO she led Furr's Restaurant Group, which had defaulted on its debt. Those and her other business expe- riences led her to co-author in 2005 "Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis." Hopgood says she developed her realty and leadership skills early in her career. After college, she worked at a Massachusetts sav- ings bank as a senior mortgage officer. Later, she landed in Hartford, working in insurer Aetna's investment-property division, Aetna Realty Investors. Her first year there, she was often on the road and rarely home. Eventually, Hopgood had a $1 billion investment-realty portfolio to run at Aetna, focused mainly on the West Coast, but no social life. So, she and a girlfriend got an idea: A get-together for their Asylum Hill condo neighbors, especially the men, one of whom was a tall, lanky physics graduate working as an Aetna actuary, Frank Lord. Married 32 years, she and Lord have always lived in Hartford, except for brief periods when they lived in Kansas City, Mo., when she ran Houlihan's, and in Wash- ington D.C., where she was hired to build the cor- porate board advisory services business for the National Association of Corporate Directors. What does Hopgood dislike most? "Don't lie to her,'' said Lord. "I know if you're going to lie to me about one thing," Hopgood said, "you're going to lie to me about another. I'm done.'' Her candor doesn't always go down smoothly. In June 2015, The Hartford Cou- rant published emails from Hopgood to oth- ers that, among other things, openly ques- tioned whether the 9,000-seat, $60 million minor league ballpark being built downtown might siphon off state funding for XL Center improvements. "I tend to send emails that sound snarky,'' Hopgood said. "The only person who has been able to shut me up is the governor, by appointing me to CRDA.'' Road warriors Lord, a licensed realty broker who sits on the Hartford Pension Commission, says he does most of the cooking because his wife is still on the road a lot. She doesn't own a car, preferring mass transit or a car service to get around. Lord has one. Both ex-runners, the Hopgood-Lords share an affinity for bicycling in and around Hart- ford, and, at least each winter, go on cycling excursions to warm corners of Europe and Asia. Last January, the couple spent several weeks cycling in Myanmar and trekked via bike to Cambodia's Angkor Wat. India is next up. A shutterbug, Hopgood has hundreds of digital images of their travels. "We're not people who look like they're train- ing for the Tour de France,'' she chuckled. Good friend Bonnie Malley isn't so sure. The chief financial officer for Hartford insurer The Phoenix Cos. says Hopgood has tried for a long time to recruit her to Hopgood's weekly riding circuit. Malley says she repeatedly reminds Hopgood that she doesn't own a bike. "That is my standing excuse for not embar- rassing myself to try and keep up with her,'' Malley said. "She thinks a 45-mile bike ride is an easy one." Retired MassMutual executive Ronald Copes is among the few who kept pace with Hopgood on those rides. In the late 90s, early 2000s, Copes and Hopgood were part of a reg- ular cycling group that included former city Police Chief James Crowell, late businessman Richard Weaver-Bey, late United Way of Cen- tral Connecticut CEO George Bahamonde, and former Aetna security chief Kevin McCabe. "I learned so much from them,'' Hopgood said of her cycle mates. "As humble as she is,'' Copes said, "she's a sharp cookie. She doesn't miss anything. She will have her finger on the pulse. If your heart isn't beating in the right direction, she isn't going to have much for you. She's really a team player, but she expects you to be on the team.'' Keen eye Connecticut banker Martin J. Geitz met Hopgood in 1991, while overseeing then Fleet Bank's basket of problem real estate. By then, she had left Aetna and started her epony- mous consulting firm. One day, recalled Geitz, now CEO of Simsbury Bank & Trust Co., then Hartford Mayor Michael A. Peters called Hopgood with an urgent assignment. In 1995, the Maharishi School of Vedic Sci- ences Inc. descended on Hartford and paid cash for the 12-story former American/Sones- ta/Clarion on downtown's Constitution Plaza. The Maharishi claimed to be weighing var- ious uses for the property, including as a train- ing center-dormitory for new initiates. Suspi- cious, Peters insisted Hopgood, Geitz and a Peters aide, drive down to Asbury Park, N.J., for a first-hand look at a hotel the Maharishi's were running. But the trio returned from their one-day reconnaissance, Geitz said, "with a distinctly discouraging feeling about it.'' The one image Hopgood recalls from that trip was that, upon entering the Asbury hotel's lobby, she spied "cat poop'' in a corner, turning her nose up at the memory. The Maharishi never developed their Hartford hotel property. It was later sold to New York developers, who with CRDA assis- tance, are readying it to open as the 190-unit Spectra Boutique Apartments, overlooking Constitution Plaza. "She knows commercial real estate," Geitz said. "She understands the real estate mar- ket. Secondly, she has been the most vocal and consistently supportive person of Hart- ford the entire time I've been here." Hopgood is open about her passion for Hartford. "I try not to even think exclusively about downtown,'' she said. "We're a very different city. We have pockets of very different cul- tures … I love living in this building. I love living in this city. "It's a small enough city that you can get to know people,'' she said. "That you can have … some impact, whether you're mentoring a child in school, whether you're head of iQuilt. What- ever your passion, you can have an impact. "If I'm doing something,'' Hopgood said, "I need to have an impact.'' n P H O T O | S T E V E L A S C H E V E R Suzanne Hopgood (left and above center) with fellow Hartford cyclists in the 1990s, including (to her right) Ron Copes and late city businessman Richard Weaver-Bey (second from right). P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D

• Cover