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Uncertainty hangs over stalled Pawtucket stadium project

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Uncertainty hangs over stalled Pawtucket stadium project

Mar 28, 2023 | 3:00 am ET
By Nancy Lavin
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Uncertainty hangs over stalled Pawtucket stadium project
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Delays in public financing for the $124 million Pawtucket stadium are posing challenges to United Soccer League team Rhode Island FC's schedule. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)

The agency stalling on plans to issue $27 million in state government bonds for a Pawtucket soccer stadium project will meet behind closed doors Tuesday, according to an online meeting agenda.

It will be the first time the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency has met since WPRI-12 reported March 22 that officials have held off issuing government bonds because of market uncertainty. The public borrowing is intended to help pay for the $124 million soccer stadium at the heart of the Tidewater Landing project. Originally, the quasi-public city agency was supposed to issue the bonds in December, under updated agreements approved by the Pawtucket City Council. 

The only mention of Tidewater Landing is under the executive session section of the meeting’s agenda, scheduled for 12:15 p.m. at Pawtucket City Hall.

Private developer Fortuitous Partners is still trying to attract investors to pitch in for its portion of the project, news outlets have reported.

Meanwhile, the United Soccer League team, Rhode Island FC, continues its work to hire staff and ramp up marking for what is supposed to be a 2024 season start. In an email Sunday sent to fans who already paid deposits for next year’s season tickets, Rhode Island FC President Brett Luy indicated the riverfront stadium might not be ready in time.

Our leadership team is evaluating all venue options while the construction of the stadium at Tidewater Landing progresses,” Luy wrote in the letter posted to Twitter. “We will finalize those plans in the near future. Once the venue for next year is finalized, we will announce plans and policies for how you can convert your deposit to season tickets for our historic inaugural season.

Luy sought to assure readers that the team is committed to Rhode Island. But the project has been battling mounting criticism since Rhode Island Commerce narrowly approved a reworked financing deal last summer, with Gov. Dan McKee casting the tie-breaking vote. 

McKee’s office did not immediately return inquiries for comment. Pawtucket officials also did not respond.

Mike Raia, a spokesman for Rhode Island FC, said in an email Monday that the club “doesn’t have anything additional to add” beyond what was in Luy’s statement.

artist rendering of soccer stadium
Tidewater Landing involves the development of new residential and retail development along with a new soccer stadium. (Image courtesy of Fortuitous Partners)

A project to transform the waterfront

Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency chairman concerned over troubled soccer stadium project

When it was first selected by the city through a competitive bidding process in 2019, the project spanned three separate properties along the Pawtucket River, centering around a flagship, 10,000-seat soccer stadium, along with apartments, offices, a 200-room-hotel  and outdoor event center and public infrastructure improvements. 

Just over $36 million in state and city bonds would be used to help pay for public infrastructure parts of the project, with the bonds repaid using revenue generated from the project, according to the tax-increment financing agreement approved by Rhode Island Commerce.

The project layout and size was reconfigured after one of the properties was scratched from the project plans amid difficulty acquiring the site from private owners Apex Cos.

In 2020, after multiple extensions, project partners signed an agreement giving Fortuitous Partners exclusive development rights. Additional documents outlining project timeline, developer commitments and protections for the city and state, as well as project costs, were inked in 2021. 

But after supply chain woes and inflation caused those initial estimates to skyrocket, the developer returned to the state, first to ask for more money, which was quickly shot down, and then to ask to shift nearly all of the state bonds to the first-phase stadium, leaving just $1.5 million left for other parts of the project. Commerce approved a reworked financing deal though several members expressed concern over the lack of detail, continued cost escalations and fears that the project may never happen, leaving the state on the hook for millions of dollars.

Even if the stadium gets built without the accompanying residential and commercial development, it could leave the state $52 million in the hole, according to financial analysis from a Commerce consultant. 

City and state leaders have remained bullish on the project, with McKee telling other news outlets over the weekend that he still supported it. But without the promised state bonds, the payment plans don’t add up, and officials have remained tight-lipped about when, or if, those bonds will be issued.

Discussion at the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency meeting about the project will be in private, but any votes taken during that time will have to be shared publicly.