CT Studios Project Granted 6th Extension

The South Windsor Town Council on Monday evening granted another extension to the reverter clause - this time until Sept. 30, 2013 - for the proposed $55 million Connecticut Studios project.

This time, however, it’s the town that has its work cut out for it.

Town Manager Matthew Galligan explained that the town has nine major agreements to work through; the town had held off on doing that work on the project until the developer had secured financing as well as a power purchase agreement with CL&P for a 5-megawatt fuel cell. The proceeds from the PPA will go toward paying for the construction of the public infrastructure.

Galligan said that the town would now have to spend money on attorneys' and consultants' fees to complete that work.

The measure passed in a 7-1 vote, with Town Councilor Keith Yagaloff serving as the lone dissenter.

Yagaloff said that he opposed extending the reverter clause because the council could exert greater pressure on the developer through the infrastructure agreements.

“There is no benefit to extending the reverter clause,” Yagaloff said.

But Town Councilor Kevin McCann, who has been an outspoken critic of the project at times, disagreed, noting that failing to extend the reverter clause could cause lenders to back away from the deal, jeopardizing the financing that the developers had secured.

“I’ve been skeptical [of the project] since Day 1,” said McCann, noting that he has long called on the developers to show him where the project’s financing would come from and a power purchase agreement. “[But] I don’t want to upset the apple cart.”

McCann said that an extension until Sept. 30 was reasonable to get the items in place to get the deal done.

But two residents expressed their frustration with the project during public comment.

Barbara Hoff said that she has taken photos of the property and, after 5 years, the only thing the town has to show for its efforts is a field full of weeds and the foundation for a 600-square-foot security shed.

Hoff said that the property provided to CT Studios could have been sold to another company that would be on the town’s tax rolls by now.

“We have now wasted 5 years,” she said. “It’s never going to happen.”

Mike Sullivan continued to ask how much money the town has spent on the CT Studios project, a question that he said that he has repeatedly presented to the council.