UPDATE: Judge orders city to fulfill broken skybridge promise

By Tom Quinn and Walter Bird Jr. 

A promise made by the city is coming back to haunt it, as a judge ruled this month that Worcester would have to pay for a a skybridge between the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, the Major Taylor Parking Garage and the DCU Center.

The lawyer for the hotel is hailing it as, "an excellent decision," and has left open the door for an alternative to what is now estimated to cost about $10 million.

"My client wants what he bargained for 10 years ago," attorney Louis Ciabarra of the Worcester-based law firm Bowditch & Dewey, told Worcester Magazine. His client is the Hilton Garden Inn, which is owned by Fargo Management LLC and was competed in 2006. "He came into the city, bought a parcel of land and spent millions of dollars to build a hotel. The city agreed to connect the hotel to the garage and DCU Center. My client wants what he bargained for."

That does not, however, necessarily mean the city has to build a bridge that would cost more than two times that originally anticipated. 

"My client is not, and never has been interested in beating the city," Ciabarra said. "It's about coming up with a solution that works for both sides. The city has not come up with a [suitable] solution."

Ciabarra said his client has lost "millions and millions and millions of dollars" in potential business because of the lack of a direct connection to the conference center. 

Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Tim Murray, who was mayor when the city originally agreed to build a bridge on a 10-1 vote in 2003, acknowledged the shackles placed on efforts to attract hotel guests and convention business without direct access. 

He sounded no regrets over voting for the skybridge. 

"I think that hotel deal .. was very important. My thoughts then and now are the same."

As for complying with the court order, if in fact the city were to go ahead with building a bridge, Murray said there are ways the city could foot the bill.

"I do believe there is an opportunity for the city to recoup and pay for it over time," he said, noting the possibility of attracting the types of convention business the DCU has lost in the past because of the lack of a direct connection to the hotel. 

The city first promised to build the pedestrian walkway in in 2003, before the hotel was built. It was initially estimated to cost $4 million, but increases in materials cost led to a sharp rise in cost, and the city reneged on the deal. Now, according to the Worcester Telegram, which first reported the judgment, the project could cost around $10 million.

Fargo Management LLC sued the city in 2012. In 2014, the city was found liable for breach of contract, and Fargo had requested the footbridge be built or to be compensated for the cost of the project.

“The City shall immediately construct an elevated pedestrian walkway connecting the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel to both the Major Taylor Boulevard Parking Garage & the Worcester Convention Center Facility,” reads part of the judge's decision. “The City shall provide substantive progress reports to this Court every 30 days up until the point that the bid for the construction project of the skywalk has been awarded & the construction contracts have been signed relating to that project.”

The decision to refuse to pay for the skybridge in 2007 was made by then-City Manager Mike O'Brien, with City Council backing. 

O'Brien did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. 

At-Large Councilor Konnie Lukes, who was the lone voice of dissent in 2003 and did not sign off on the agreement for the skybridge, said she was never "desperately opposed" to the project, but wanted people on the streets, not inside walking from one building to another. 

"Now," she said, "I'm worried."

She said the matter requires further negotiations. 

The legal defeat is the latest high-profile legal failure for the city, which also lost a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others regarding a strict panhandling ordinance and settled in a case with a then 16-year-old who a judge said was coerced into making a confession by Worcester police.

“No delay will be tolerated,” according to the most recent ruling, issued 13 years after the city initially signed the contract and promised that the project would be completed by the time the hotel opened.