Currey, 020615 CTAGO, AGO 2015-1

• Case Date: February 06, 2015
• Court: Connecticut

The Honorable Melody A. Currey AGO 2015-1 No. 2015-01 Connecticut Attorney General Opinions Office of the Attorney General State of Connecticut February 6, 2015          The Honorable Melody A. Currey          State of Connecticut Department of Administrative Services          450 Capitol Avenue          Hartford, CT 06106          Dear Commissioner Currey:          This letter responds to former Commissioner Donald J. DeFronzo's December 31, 2014 letter seeking an opinion as to whether language and conditions contained in a proposed draft deed between the City of New Britain and a private developer would: (1) satisfy the City of New Britain's statutory obligation to use the parcel for the purposes specified in Section 143 of Public Act 12-2 (June 2012 Special Session); and (2) extinguish the reverter contained in the October 7, 2013 deed pursuant to which the State of Connecticut conveyed the property to New Britain. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the language and conditions contained in the proposed draft deed would accomplish both purposes, provided that the deed is executed prior to October 7, 2015.          BACKGROUND          Section 143 of Public Act 12-2 provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, the Commissioner of Administrative Services, on behalf of the Chief Court Administrator, shall convey to the city of New Britain a parcel of land located in the city of New Britain, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars plus the administrative costs of making such conveyance.. . .

(b) The city of New Britain shall use said parcel of land for economic development purposes. If the city of New Britain: (1) Does not use said parcel for said purposes not later than two years after the conveyance of said parcel; or (2) Leases all or any portion of said parcel, the parcel shall revert to the state of Connecticut.

         The State conveyed the parcel at issue to the City of New Britain via Quit Claim Deed dated October 7, 2013 (attached hereto as Exhibit A). In accordance with Public Act 12-2, the deed provided that the property was "conveyed subject to the requirement the Grantee [City of New Britain] use said property for economic development purposes. If Grantee [City of New Britain] does not use the Property for said purposes within two years after the date this Quit Claim Deed is approved by the Attorney General or Grantee leases all or any portion of the Property, the Property shall revert to the State of Connecticut."          The parcel at issue consists of vacant land adjacent to the New Britain Superior Court parking garage. The City plans to sell the parcel to a private developer via a proposed quit claim deed (the "Proposed Deed, attached hereto as Exhibit B). The Proposed Deed includes a covenant providing that the "Releasee [private developer] shall commence the construction of improvements for economic development purposes on the property hereby conveyed within five (5) years from the date of this Deed and...