Worcester demands Polar Park developer pay taxes & fees over terminated project, blames City deficit over lack of progress

photo | eric casey The parcel containing the planned biotech-focused Left Field Building remains idle amid a fight between Boston-based developer Madison Properties and the City.

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By Eric Casey

The Worcester Redevelopment Authority is demanding the key developer in the Polar Park district pay taxes and fees to the City of Worcester over the termination of the project to build a commercial building next to the baseball stadium.

The WRA wants Madison Properties, the Boston development firm which pulled out of a key Ballpark District development deal, to provide the fees and taxes it would have paid if Madison had completed the so-called Left Field building.

In the demand letter to Madison, the WRA says Madison’s failure to complete multiple projects is directly responsible for the substantial revenue deficit in the district, which now needs to tap general taxpayer funds to cover the bond payments on the $160-million stadium. When announced in 2018, the stadium was proposed as a pay-for-itself project, where the money for its construction would be covered by increased tax revenues and other fees from new developments around the stadium.

“[Madison’s] claim that it must only proceed with its responsibilities under the agreement ‘when it is ready’ and that it will not do so to the extent that it affects Madison's profits ignores both the letter and the spirit of the agreement, and has directly led to the substantial deficit in the Project revenues for 2024,” WRA Chair Michael Angelini wrote in a Dec. 13 letter to Madison Properties obtained by WBJ via a public records request.

The letter written by Angelini on behalf of the WRA was drafted following a tense November meeting between the authority and the firm where Mark Donahue, director at Worcester law firm Fletcher Tilton and legal counsel for Madison Properties President Denis Dowdle, outlined the difficulties the firm had in completing projects in the district.

Denis Dowdle, president of Madison Properties

Donahue told WBJ Madison Properties has been in communication with the City and is working on a response to the letter.

Angelini wrote in the Dec. 13 letter Madison has decided to devote its resources to projects outside of Worcester instead of meeting the commitments it made in a 2021 land disposition and development agreement. The most glaring example of Madison’s failure pertains to the Left Field building, a building which was supposed to have its skin, shell, and core construction completed by last April.

That project has not moved forward, resulting in a large open area next to Polar Park which has since been partially taken over by the Worcester Red Sox as a temporary fan zone.

“Madison has not only disregarded its contractual obligations [to construct the building] but expects to benefit from that disregard by proposing to pay approximately $250,000 less in real estate taxes and building permit fees purely by reason of not having done what it was obligated to do,” Angelini wrote.

The WRA’s concerns were not confined to left field, as the authority took issue with Madison’s inability to build a second residential building it had committed to completing following its successful completion of The Revington, a 228-unit apartment building across Madison Street from Polar Park.

“Madison represented that the second residential building would be completed within one year of the completion of what is now the Revington, but Madison apparently lacks either the operational or financial capability, or perhaps both, for constructing that building,” Angelini wrote. “Given the robust market for residential properties in the City, as reflected by the recent completion of two large residential developments in the same area as the project, there can be no other reason for Madison's disregard of its obligation.”

Angelini said the firm’s claims it had not received assistance in developing the other properties it had committed to in the Ballpark District were blatantly inaccurate, writing the Economic Development Coordinating Council had referred several potential tenants, developers, and partners to Madison and the Economic Development Coordinating Council had been supportive of Madison’s efforts to win a proposal to locate the State Police Crime Lab on Madison Street.

Angelini wrote the burden is on Madison to demonstrate its willingness to commit to meet its obligations to the WRA, saying a starting point would be for the firm to commit to paying fees and taxes it would have owed had it completed the Left Field project. He requested a detailed itemization of investments Madison has made in the left field parcel thus far and said the firm should indicate its willingness to sell the parcel to a third party for development.

This latest escalation in the ongoing disagreement between Madison and the City comes after a November city council meeting where members had harsh words for the firm, with District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj saying its behavior was a slap in the face to the city.

Madison’s apparent failure to meet its development obligations in the Ballpark District came to light after a November letter from City Manager Eric Batista revealed the special financing district around Polar Park was facing a shortfall of $792,000 and that Madison had terminated the tax-increment-financing agreement to develop the left field parcel.

Property taxes and other fees raised from development projects in the Ballpark District are supposed to play a key role in paying down debt on the $160-million Polar Park, which former City Manager Edward Augustus, Batista, and other city officials have said would pay for itself over the span of the Worcester Red Sox’s 35-year lease.

Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.