SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The long-running dispute between the University of Rhode Island and a nonprofit over a never-completed construction project of a Greek cultural center that has been ongoing for more than a decade is nearing its end.
On July 3, the R.I. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state’s only land-grant school by denying the Hellenic Society Paideia Rhode Island chapter’s appeal fighting an arbitration award for URI, which was confirmed last year. The arbitrator, per court documents, directed Hellenic Society to reimburse URI for the “cost and expenses” that URI will incur to restore the construction site back to being vacant land.
URI spokesperson Anthony LaRoche said in an email Monday to Providence Business News that the site already has been restored. But URI, LaRoche says, has not yet determined a specific use for the site. The university is looking forward to “having the land available to our community," he said.
LaRoche also says neither the court nor the arbitrator identified a specific amount of money that URI would receive for its arbitration award from the Hellenic Society. That still needs to be resolved between the university and society, he said.
Over the years, the matter had become somewhat of a running joke on campus, with references to the unfinished building as the “Greek ruins” and the long-running dispute as a “Greek tragedy.”
According to court documents, the arbitrator had determined the lease agreement URI had with the Hellenic Society “constituted an enforceable contract” that URI terminated in 2012 after the society breached the agreement by “defaulting on its obligations.”
Among those obligations the Hellenic Society failed to meet was for it to fully construct a 22,000-square-foot center that would house URI’s Hellenic studies program and the Center for Humanities within 30 months. The society argued to the Supreme Court that the arbitrator, among other complaints, failed to provide the nonprofit proper guidance on how to reimburse URI for the failed project and the arbitrator also “erroneously concluded” the lease agreement was a valid contract between both parties.
The Supreme Court, though, ruled against the society’s appeal on the grounds that the nonprofit “failed to demonstrate” that the arbitrator acted in a way that would have the Supreme Court hold up the award for URI.
The $5 million project began in 2011, where workers laid the foundation, dug a hole for an amphitheater and erected concrete pillars. Originally, the society told URI funding for the project would continue as construction progressed.
The work, however, stopped in 2012 and never restarted, despite the Hellenic Society’s website still currently referring to its proposed facility as a “current project.” By November 2012, URI notified the Hellenic Society it was terminating the lease, and in 2013, the university demanded that the society return the property, which has since been known on campus as the “Greek ruins,” to its previous condition.
When the society refused to concede a breach of the lease and wouldn’t restore the property, URI and the R.I. Council on Postsecondary Education, which holds the titles for URI properties, went to court.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
