Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • December 18, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Bronin's calls for financial lifeline finally answered By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com D uring Luke Bronin's second year as Hartford mayor, the city suffered multiple credit downgrades and came within weeks of defaulting on its bond obliga- tions. There was even a public forum held where a former Detroit official and a Rhode Island mayor recounted what it's like when a city goes bankrupt. Despite all that, Hartford remains solvent, at least for now. Bronin has spent much of his year warning of the city's long-developing and unsustain- able fiscal situation and the need for a more regional approach to local government in the state. His clarion call ultimately helped sway state lawmakers to approve a lifeline for Hartford in the $41.3 billion state budget passed in October. The state will help Hartford restructure and make payments on more than $600 million in debt. In exchange, the city is applying to the state for a distressed-municipality status under a newly created municipal accountability review board (MARB). The board will have some oversight over the city's finances, but its powers could increase if the state thinks it would ensure the city's fiscal sustainability and protect the state's interests. That extra authority could include approving or modifying education budgets, approving contracts exceeding certain amounts, and approving or rejecting new terms of union contracts. Bronin, a Democrat, backed formation of an account- ability review board-like proposal during his first few months in office. He failed to get it in his first year, but succeeded in 2018. "With the tools that are in this budget, it's possible to achieve a sustainable result outside of bankruptcy, and that's what we're doing," Bronin said in a recent interview. While things are looking less urgent for the city, Hartford is not out of the woods yet. Bronin's former boss, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said so himself shortly after the state budget passed. Unless all stakeholders come to the table and work out contract and debt restructuring arrangements, "the city will have no recourse but to go bankrupt," Malloy said. However, several city unions, including police and firefighters, have agreed to new labor contracts that will purportedly save the city millions of dollars annually. Have the city's well-publicized struggles damaged its prospects for investment? While Bronin acknowledges a "perception challenge," he doesn't think they have. "I think what investors and businesses see is that we are determined to fix the problem that has held us back for a long time, which is that we've had structural deficits year after year, tre- mendous uncertainty," he said. "I think we have a chance now to really build some momentum." But whether Bronin will remain a central part of that momentum remains to be seen. After a year of flirting with Ch. 9 bankruptcy, Bronin is now flirting with higher office. In November, the 38-year-old former Rhodes Scholar, U.S. Navy intelligence officer, U.S. Treasury official and chief counsel to Malloy, said he's weighing a run for governor. He formed an exploratory committee in December. His decision to consider a run came after the presumptive Democratic frontrunner, Nancy Wyman, said she would not be running. Malloy announced earlier this year that he wouldn't seek a third term. UConn's top designer Cruickshank cleared big projects from her '17 to-do list Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com L aura Cruickshank, UConn's chief architect-master planner, got to check off this year several major buildings on her project to-do list. In August alone, Cruickshank and her team of design, engineering and construc- tion overseers pulled off the wraps on a 320-bed residence hall in Stamford — UConn's first student housing not built on its flagship campus in Mansfield's Storrs section. But the highlight was the Aug. 23 grand opening of the university's relocated West Hartford campus to downtown Hartford, the centerpiece of which was the $140 million redo of the former Hartford Times building at 10 South Prospect St. "Universities don't get to open new campuses very often,'' Cruickshank said. The building houses 160,000 square feet of classroom, lecture and faculty space, along with 19,000 square feet of retail space. Well before UConn's Hartford campus opened, downtown apartment landlords and developers and retailers scrambled to revamp existing or build new space to accommodate the more than 1,000 extra feet the campus has since brought to downtown. "The campus opening in Hartford, in terms of what we're trying to achieve … all of that has been achieved,'' Cruick- shank said. " … People just come up to me and say how excited they are to have UConn in downtown Hartford.'' But the Hartford and Stamford projects were among other juicy morsels of her full development-construc- tion plate in 2017, some of which will be completed in 2018 and beyond. In all, more than $385 million worth of new construc- tion and renovation projects for another science-focused building, athletic and student-life facilities, among oth- ers, were in various planning and design stages in 2017, according to UConn's April 2017 planning documents. "Lots of stuff going on,'' Cruickshank said. At the main campus, a $10 million replacement of the 2,093 aged ceiling tiles that comprise Gampel Pavilion's geodesic dome was completed well ahead of the start of the 2017 women's and men's basketball season. Also completed was the $95 million, 115,000-square-foot Engineering and Science Building and the $162 million, 114,000-square-foot Innovation Partnership Building, a linchpin of UConn's Technology Park. Cruickshank said she is most proud that all the completed projects came in either un- der budget or on time, or both. Meantime, renovations are about to begin on the south wing of the Gant Building, home to several departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Gant west wing will be renovated next, and prior to beginning the final phase in the north wing, a new sci- ence research building will be constructed to house the current north wing occupants. Next spring, work will begin on the second phase of improvements to UConn's fine-arts facilities, including a budgeted $24 million, 31,000-square-foot addition and upgrades to Nate Katter Theater and related drama-music facilities. Five We Watched in 2017 H ere is a look back at the five business, nonprofit and higher education leaders we watched in 2017. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin spent much of 2017 flirting with Ch. 9 bankruptcy, but now the Democrat is flirting with a run for governor. UConn Chief Architect Laura Cruickshank oversaw completion of several important building projects this year, perhaps none more so than UConn's relocated suburban campus to Hartford. Continued on next page > PHOTO | HBJ FILE PHOTO | HBJ FILE

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