In the 10 years’ worth of efforts to restore the former Harriet Bradford Inn in Bristol, plans for the site have been submitted several times for approval by town officials. Now the project needs one more approval to move forward – this time, from U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Property owner Ted Barrows, through his company Belvedere Developers, has until Feb. 23 to prove that he can develop and implement a “feasible” plan for the site, his attorney said. Then he has another 90 days to bring the plan to fruition.
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The project, which would turn the run-down, vacant hotel into luxury condominiums, was first stalled in May, when a partnership between New York-based Center Development Corp. and Barrows was terminated.
Center Development was moving forward with its local partner, Joseph Brito, having received approval from the Bristol Zoning Board of Review in April, and had an agreement to purchase the property from Barrows.
But he denied requests to extend the deadline for the purchase-and-sale agreement made by Center Development, which then foreclosed on Barrows’ $1.3-million mortgage.
Center Development then purchased the hotel and two other lots for $825,000 at a public auction in November, but Barrows stalled any movement of the property by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before the deal was recorded.
According to Belvedere’s attorney, Peter Furness, Belvedere Developers is looking at three options to meet the court-imposed deadline: First, the company may negotiate a sale of the property. Secondly, the Belvedere is looking into getting a partner, similar to the agreement it had with Center Development.
Lastly, Furness said, Belvedere could refinance what it currently owes to Center Development, a figure that the New York firm’s attorney put at around $1.7 million.
But Center Development – both through its attorney, Jeffrey Brenner, and in a motion filed in court – questioned Belvedere’s ability to find a partner for the property.
In the motion, Center Development argued that Belvedere has no prospect of selling the inn and surrounding lots and is incapable of filing “any plan, let alone a feasible one.”
Built in 1902 by the Herreshoff family, the Harriet Bradford Inn was originally known as the Hotel Belvedere, and provided lodgings for prospective boat buyers. It had long fallen into disrepair and become a flophouse, however, until it finally closed in the mid-1990s.
Since then, the town has been pushing to fix the downtown Bristol property. Barrows, who purchased it in 1997, originally planned to turn the inn into a high-end hotel, but abandoned those plans because of a shift in the economy.
Then Center Development was brought in, and the plan became to turn the Belvedere, along with some adjacent properties, into 14 luxury condominiums. Last March, the Bristol Zoning Board of Review approved the project.
The attorneys for both Belvedere and Center Development said that should they prevail in court, their clients each expect to develop a project in line with what was approved by the zoning board.
