Norwich Hospital development remains fantasy
I couldn't help but think, as Mohegan Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown, addressing a news conference Tuesday in his Royal Suite, the swanky high-rollers penthouse atop the tribe's glassy Sky Tower hotel, that the emperor had no clothes.
At least the development for the Norwich Hospital property he was describing — marina, theme park, synthetic skiing, more than a half-billion dollars worth of stuff — seemed like the imaginary clothes worn by the emperor in the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale.
In the Andersen tale, no one wants to admit they can't see the emperor's clothes because the garments were said to be woven to be invisible to the stupid or incompetent.
At Brown's news conference, the people who seemed to see the clothes — the restaurants, hotels, indoor water park — were largely politicians eager to claim credit for any development on the long-abandoned state hospital property.
But, let's be honest, it may never happen, not any of it.
I couldn't help but think, as Brown spun the web of fantasy development, that you might get better odds for a jackpot on one of the slot machines downstairs than for the likelihood that $600 million of new development might be in the ground across from Mohegan Sun in the next five years.
Let's remember that the tribe has been busy telling legislators in Hartford that Mohegan Sun is on the precipice of business disaster, given the big competitor being built in Springfield.
Indeed, the tribe is quite honest in asserting it plans to spend none of its own capital on the hospital property but rather will go out to find other developers willing to invest.
If it's that easy, why hasn't the tribe lured big hotel, theme park, synthetic ski resort and retail developers to all the other land near its casino, land it has owned for years?
For that matter, why haven't those developers turned up for the steady diet of requests for proposals for the Norwich Hospital property all these years by the town?
Not a single project on that big drawing board unveiled Tuesday has a developer or financing attached to it. It doesn't get any more theoretical than that.
Don't get me wrong; I think the plan to sell the land to the tribe cheaply is a fine one.
The person who spoke the most truth at Brown's news conference was Gov. Dannel Malloy, who noted what a crime it was for the state to foist the polluted property on the little Town of Preston in the first place.
The deal with the tribe, scheduled to go to town voters for final approval next month, at least puts the raw land back on the tax rolls.
Even if it came years too late, and as part of the planning for a fantasy development, the governor's promise to finish the cleanup of the state's own environmental mess finally will get the town off the hook.
And certainly, over time, the tribe will be in a better position than volunteers for the town to entice developers, or even new owners, to the site.
But remember, too, that the tribe is getting a very good deal. The preliminary proposal to be used for the final version going soon to voters, calls for the tribe to put up a line of credit with $11 million in it.
Depending on how much development and the number of jobs created, a $2 million loan from the state to the town could be paid off and $9 million could be paid from the line of credit to the town.
I'm no real estate appraiser, but it would seem that paying some $11 million, after five years, for 393 acres across from a casino resort on the river, land which has been environmentally remediated, is not a bad price.
And that's if nothing happens.
If the tribe indeed manages to lure other developers to come and spend their money to make Mohegan Sun a more attractive resort, lucky them. They'll pay less. And the town will get the taxable development and jobs it craves.
But like the little kid who blurted out in Andersen's tale that the emperor had no clothes, let's stop calling this a $600 million, jobs-creating development.
It is a land sale right now, one with very good terms for the buyer.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
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