Bruce Sprigsteen played XL Center, Hartford, Conn., which may soon be on the block.
The XL Center, the 16,000-plus capacity multipurpose arena in downtown Hartford, Conn., could soon go on the market in search of a new owner.
Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), said the CRDA is considering seeking buyers for the arena, which is owned by the city of Hartford. The CRDA, an economic development agency for the Hartford area, operates the venue, while Spectra oversees venue operations, such as catering, booking events and sales. The Connecticut General Assembly recently approved $40 million for improvements to the XL Center and included a provision that the arena’s managers should seek new owners by June 2019. However, Freimuth said the CRDA expects it could move sooner than that.
Freimuth said seeking a sale earlier than 2019 would help avoid a scenario in which the XL Center’s unknown future becomes a hindrance to its successful operation.
“There is a concern that allowing the matter to linger has greater problems in that it creates an uncertainty in the market with event promoters, event sponsors, staff and the general public,” Freimuth said.
The XL Center, which opened in 1975, serves as the home arena of the University of Connecticut women’s and men’s basketball teams and the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Hartford Wolf Pack, the primary developmental affiliate of the New York Rangers. The venue, which was originally named the Hartford Civic Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Exhibition Center, also stages concerts, family shows, ice-skating events, consumer events and trade shows. During its long history, the XL Center has hosted major musical performers ranging from the Beach Boys and Diana Ross to Taylor Swift and Drake.
Freimuth said the XL Center’s strengths to potential buyers include that it is a long-established property with high name recognition, appealing education- and income-level demographics for its audiences, an affiliation with the University of Connecticut and relatively easy access for visitors. Freimuth also pointed to more than $50 million of public investment for improvements in the facility in the past three years. Freimuth said the arena’s appeal can be strengthened with continued state support for operations and capital upgrades. The $40 million in improvements recently earmarked by the state legislature is pending approval by the State Bond Commission.
Freimuth said the climate for state support is challenging. The CRDA had sought a larger commitment toward a proposed $250 million renovation of the XL Center, but the legislature opted for a smaller figure. The CRDA pursued potential partners for a new private-public partnership for the arena earlier this year but found scant interest, Freimuth said.
“The process and the degree to which the state supports the building are all a work in progress,” Freimuth said. “We’ve had a variety of false starts (having tried a public/private partnership earlier this year and getting only one response), and the general public’s support in these times of difficult budgets has waned.”
Freimuth said he does not believe the field of potential buyers for the XL Center is large. He expects those most interested in the arena will be those who are attracted to the venue’s role in the city and region and who might be considering the XL Center as a centerpiece to something larger instead of as a standalone entity.
“We think the universe is limited and will probably include those investors who have an interest in Hartford redevelopment greater than just the XL Center,” he said.
With that in mind, Freimuth said an important characteristic for an interested buyer will be “experience in operating and nurturing an entertainment venue as part of an urban redevelopment scenario.”
The XL Center’s origins in the 1970s can be traced to redevelopment efforts in those days of downtown Hartford. Freimuth said the Hartford Civic Center was one of the country’s first major public/private partnerships when it was developed as a collaboration between the city of Hartford and Aetna. The arena attracted national attention when its roof collapsed after a heavy snowstorm in January 1978, shutting down the arena until it reopened in February 1980. XL Insurance purchased naming rights to the building in 2007.
Freimuth said nearly 600,000 people attend events each year at the XL Center, “driving restaurant, bar, parking, hotel spending, while the building provides work to over 800 people on both a part-time and full-time basis.”
Oz Griebel, president and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance, which has more than 1,000 businesses, municipalities and organization as members, said the XL Center is a key economic development piece to the city and region.
“It’s very important to the overall development of the capital city, particularly the downtown area,” Griebel said. “And we believe as the downtown area goes, so goes the city, and as the city of Hartford goes so goes the region in terms of its economic growth and its ability to attract and retain private sector employment and investment. So it’s an absolutely vital asset.”
Griebel said the XL Center’s importance to Hartford goes beyond its fiscal value.
“It has both a real impact on the restaurants and the bars and the immediate area but it also has a great psychological impact,” Griebel said. “People want to be where there is stuff going on. To me, it’s a combination of the fiscal reality of what a venue like that does but also how it makes people feel.”
Freimuth agreed, saying the arena supports broader efforts to attract potential downtown residents.
“It is a component of a larger urban lifestyle strategy that it is critical to appeal to those seeking to live downtown, who in turn form the basis of the next generation of the labor force,” Freimuth said.
In the years since its founding, the XL Center has seen the landscape for venues and entertainment in the region toughen, Griebel said. He points to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and the Webster Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut as examples of regional venues that compete for events and audiences.
Griebel said the city around the XL Center has seen positive changes over the past 15 to 20 years, such as a major expansion of housing downtown, but critical to the arena’s success will be improving the economic climate in Hartford and the state.
“We have to grow the economy in the state of Connecticut,” Griebel said. “We have to grow the economy in the state, and we have to grow the population. We’ve been stagnant in the state – in fact, we’ve been losing population for the past two or three years. We’ve really had no aggregate job growth over the last 20 years. We have to grow so that there are people who want to come to the venue.”