The Future of Dillon Stadium a Public–Private Partnership
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The Future of Dillon Stadium a Public–Private Partnership REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL #18-001 ATTN: Michael W. Freimuth Capital Region Development Authority 100 Columbus Blvd, Suite 500 Hartford, CT 06103 Introduction Civic Mind is proud to submit our proposal to redevelop Dillon Stadium as a premier community sports and recreation venue and future home to professional sports teams. We seek to build a long-term partnership with the City of Hartford, the Capital Region Development Authority and the people of Greater Hartford to design a transformative, regional asset with an inspiring and robust calendar of programing for our community. Dillon Stadium is uniquely positioned for an innovative development as a public park venue within the Coltsville Historic District. The stadium’s centralized location in our Capital City and convenient proximity and high visibility alongside Interstate 91 and Interstate 84 provides the necessary access to our suburban neighbors to build regional connectivity, purpose and identity. The substantial progress of Colt Gateway and the designation of Coltsville as a national park make the project the next step in this historic neighborhood’s development. The revitalization of Dillon Stadium is an incredible, multi-faceted community development project for Greater Hartford. Our team fully appreciates the integrity and commitment required to successfully deliver on such a pivotal project. More specifically, we understand this endeavor to be comprised of two separate, yet equally important opportunities: 1. The Project Dillon Stadium and Colt Park have extraordinary potential to become a regional and statewide attraction for diverse, multi-generational audiences and user groups. 2. The Process A deliberative and transparent community-driven development process can efectively serve to rebuild trust and confidence between Hartford, its residents and regional stakeholders. Civic Mind is prepared to produce a comprehensive master plan for Dillon Stadium and Colt Park including a phased development strategy with established growth criteria. The master plan will provide a shared vision, identify existing and prospective user groups, detail a capital improvement plan to maximize our resources, and produce an operational plan coordinating the programming of the venue and surrounding assets. The master plan will be developed in partnership with the City of Hartford and the Capital Region Development Authority — as well as through an expansive and continuous public participation process — and will guide the evolution of the parks development and operation. Civic Mind and its partners can provide the necessary leadership and expertise to transform this distressed park into a regional asset with high school, collegiate and community programming recognized as our initial user groups. Civic Mind has interviewed three globally recognized stadium development firms and subsequently selected Stantec as our development partner. Stantec’s exemplary track record on similar projects and shared commitment to a robust community engagement process are perfectly aligned with our development approach. Civic Mind has also engaged the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), the sole governing body of Connecticut high school athletics, as a foundational partner. The CIAC works to ensure safe practices, fair play and equitable systems in high school sports in Connecticut. The CIAC’s partnership in this project will create a venue fundamentally designed with the safety of athletes and fans while reinforcing the integrity of sport and competition. Operationally, our partnership with the CIAC will establish an annual calendar of competitive and inspiring high school sporting events including Connecticut tournament and championship games as well as regional rivalry and alumni events. The annual calendar will be selectively curated to introduce suburban communities and new audiences to Hartford while ofering equitable access to a venue with desirable amenities otherwise unseen in underserved communities. Our overall redevelopment approach empowers our community and activates our partnerships to shape a sustainable future for the venue, responsibly invests our resources and maximizes the use of Dillon Stadium and Colt Park. Our partnerships provide unique perspective that will enhance our ability to unite the community’s diverse interests and efectively mobilize our collective resources. Meanwhile, our partnership development strategy achieves shared success while streamlining operational expenses. Our proposal’s fiscal strength is rooted in a fully-formed master plan, a phased and demand- driven growth plan, and an efcient and sustainable operational plan. Our financial model achieves sustainability through diversified revenue streams and practical and pragmatic expenditures over time. Our revenue sources include grassroots capital campaigns, strategic business partnerships, fee-based and sponsored programming, event operations, services rendered, as well as private and philanthropic investment. Civic Mind was founded in Hartford in 2011 to tackle this specific project. In fact, from May 2013 to February 2014, Civic Mind was retained by the City of Hartford and completed extensive planning and predevelopment work for this project. Moving forward, we are confident we possess the unique credibility and deepest understanding of the venue’s important role and value to our community. We recognized the direct services and intangible connections a premier regional asset could provide to surrounding communities and school systems. For example, a standard high school sporting event begins at 3pm — as many schools do not have lights to facilitate games later in the evening. This logistical deficiency is a barrier for parents and families to attend their student-athlete’s events. Other logistical challenges include subpar playing surfaces, the lack of concessions, broadcast and other media capabilities, or even adequate, accessible restroom facilities. Therefore, a revitalized Dillon Stadium is an opportunity for Hartford to provide valuable services to our neighboring communities while simultaneously ofering suburbia positive, family experiences in our city. In turn, these positive experiences become generational traditions over time. Through a more localized lens, the lack of safe and well-maintained facilities for Hartford Schools is a wholly diferent, systemic issue of equity which must be addressed with more courage and urgency. We also learned of the systemic value of Dillon Stadium and Colt Park as an entry point for immigrants to join family and friends in Hartford. The recreational activities at these parks is a place to create a meaningful connection to their new home through a shared love of sport and play. The parks also serve as a place to find employment opportunities through trusted, more established friends or through modest entrepreneurial pursuits such as selling authentic cultural cuisine on game days. In this light, we see a tremendous opportunity to work with the City of Hartford and other public agencies to ofer services, such as health and citizenship programming, to aid our new residents and neighbors transition and integrate into our community. Finally, we have all learned together that designing Dillon Stadium for privately owned sports ventures is the wrong approach and that no team ownership group or singularly focused endeavor should lead this park’s development. We learned reconciling a public park improvement project to meet the volatile, speculative and inherently self-interested needs of private pursuits is inappropriate. Any proposal ofering aggressive timelines, unbalanced financial contributions and zealous promises are glaring red flags which must be recognized and dismissed. These are opportunistic proposals built on Hartford’s past failure and current weaknesses, rather than on our collective strengths. The City of Hartford must reject the speculative promises and political allure of such a fundamentally flawed approach. That said, Civic Mind’s plan is designed to accommodate and facilitate the growth of private enterprises who share our community values. Civic Mind is a Hartford-based social enterprise deeply passionate about designing solutions for and with the community we live and work. The idea of reimagining Dillon Stadium is our company’s origin story and we have tenaciously worked towards realizing this goal since 2011. We believe Dillon Stadium should be a Hartford landmark, a monument to our passion and collective interests, an expression of our community’s revolutionary spirit, innovative drive and perseverance. We believe a ground-up, community barn-raising is the best approach to construct the stadium. We believe the revitalization process should be a reflection of how Hartford plans to grow together through mutual respect and appreciation. Our plan is focused on improving a historically significant public park and quality of life amenity for the citizens of Hartford and the communities of Greater Hartford. Our foundational partnerships with the City of Hartford, the Capital Region Development Authority and the Department of Economic and Community Development would preserve the integrity of the venue as a public park while creating pathways for local investment to finance the pragmatic and incremental development of the venue. A continuous public participation process is at the core of our revitalization and growth strategy. Together, we can create a forward-thinking, socially and financially responsible