Dunkin' Donuts Park is on track to be completed for the Hartford Yard Goats home opener April 13, according to the insurance company charged with finishing the minor league baseball stadium.
For the Hartford Stadium Authority, the news from Arch Insurance was a ray of hope in a project that has been mired in missed deadlines, cost overruns, and broken promises from the former developers.
But after spending their entire inaugural season on the road, Patrick Nails, senior vice president of Arch, told the authority that Dunkin' Donuts Park is on track to play Yard Goats baseball on April 13.
Nails did concede that there are construction problems that still have to be fixed, and delays could happen. But inclement weather probably won't be one of them.
"The stadium is fully winterized right now," said Nails. "What that effectively means is that even if we do get some bad weather, work will continue on the project."
Arch consultant, architect Michael Spinelli, told the authority that 95 to 100 people are working inside the stadium weekdays, with a smaller crew on Saturdays.
Arch Insurance agreed to take over the project last fall after developers Centerplan and DoNo Hartford were fired by Mayor Luke Bronin for being late and over budget.
Meanwhile, Minor League baseball president Pat O'Connor called the situation in Hartford "maybe not as unforeseen as it proved to be." In an interview with BaseballAmerica.com, O'Connor thanked the Colorado Rockies, the Hartford Yard Goats major league affiliate, for "putting up with the situation."
