Buyer backs away from Belmont market in Narragansett

NARRAGANSETT — A Connecticut developer has decided not to buy the former Belmont/IGA supermarket building that the town acquired nearly a year ago to renovate as a new library.

The developer, Carlos Mouta — who grew up in the working-class Parkville section on the west side of Hartford and owns a house in Narragansett — planned to buy the former grocery in the Pier Marketplace to convert into a European-style food market with stalls, artisinal food and music, like New York City's Chelsea Market.

In January, a newly seated council, with a majority determined to block the library's plans for the Belmont, voted to sell the building. They found a buyer without listing the sale.

Town Solicitor Mark Davis emailed Town Council members last week to inform them that Mouta was backing out.

"Naturally, I am pleased with that outcome," said Councilman Jesse Pugh, and "I think it was the right decision for the buyer."

Pugh said he met Mouta early in the process. "I let him know the history of that building," he said Monday afternoon. Some residents had said they would boycott any business that took the space away from the planned library.

"He actually hadn't known."

Just before the election last November, the library plan was poised to seek bids from architect-engineers to design and oversee construction. The election swung the council majority to those opposed to using the Belmont for a library. The new majority even locked potential bidders out on the day they were to walk through to get an idea of the building's condition and layout.

The three-person majority used its voting power to stop any attempt to bring the deal out into the open, and thwart any move toward the library plan. Then the buyer was announced and the majority voted to enter into an agreement.

Backers of the library plan protested the council's decision to sell, and then the secrecy around finding a buyer. The property was never listed, the asking price was never published, and negotiations were conducted behind closed doors. The buyer was never required to file a business plan or prove his solvency, critics said.

"My take is," Pugh said Monday afternoon before a council meeting with nothing on the agenda about the former Belmont, "I would like to see the building remain available for the town, through the next election, and for it to become the library as planned."

Two lawsuits, one by a coalition backing the library plan and the other by previous owner Gilbane, which set the building's price low because it was to become a library, were temporarily settled in Superior Court when the plaintiffs and the town agreed not to transfer any property without the court's permission.

Councilman Patrick Murray, a Realtor and the other member of the council minority that residents cheer and the majority ignores, explained that no contract had been signed. There was no purchase and sale agreement. All they had was a letter of intent.

"Yeah," Murray said. "What businessman in their right mind would move forward with this purchase in this political landscape. We've got a year to go" before the next election and the chance to break the grip that Council President Matthew Mannix, President Pro-Tem Jill Lawler and Councilman Richard M. Lema have exerted to stop the library expansion.

"They're committed to selling the building," Murray said of the three. But, he said, "I can't see another buyer stepping forward and wanting to stick their head in a hornet's nest.

"Is it a victory?" he asked. "No it's not a victory. It's a continuation of a tragic kabuki theater."

Resident Win Hames, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to stop any sale, said the decision was "not totally unexpected." Compared with the Parkville Market that Mouta was building in Hartford, "it is a very small area."

Hames said the terms were going to be that Mouta would pay $50,000 when an agreement was signed, and $700,000 at the closing. The town would finance the remaining $1.2 million. Whether that exceeded the stricture that the town can lend no more than 1.5% of the budget is being argued. The way Hames figures it, the town would be limited to financing $900,000.

None of the three council majority members responded to a request for comment, although Lawler and Lema were asked just minutes before the meeting.

Mouta's public relations contact also did not respond.

— dnaylor@providencejournal.com

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