Nine years after the struggling City of Hartford donated 86 acres of land surrounding Batterson Park to the Municipal Employees Retirement Fund (MERF) in lieu of cash, the pension fund is preparing to sell the property that is now appraised at less than half its stated 2017 value, in a land deal that is sparking outcry in New Britain and Farmington.

Faced with a $48 million budget deficit and possible bankruptcy in 2017, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin deeded the property surrounding the defunct Batterson Park to MERF in lieu of $5 million that would normally be paid into the fund as part the city’s required pension contribution. Now, pension fund managers are moving to sell the property to Noble Energy to establish a truck stop with diesel fuel and a warehouse. 

Sale of the property is purportedly pending approval of Noble Energy’s applications to the municipalities’ respective committees, but the property is currently appraised at less than $2.1 million. With Hartford’s pension system assuming a 6.75 percent annual rate of return the property should have accounted for a value of roughly $8 million nine years later. Even just accounting for inflation alone, the price would be $6.8 million.

However, according to the land appraisal conducted in 2016 by CBRE New England, the property’s value to the pension fund was overstated to begin with, and the land was envisioned as a space for either hotels or medical and science offices.

“The wetlands study determined that only 12 to 14 of the total 86 acres are ‘usable,’ allowing for very limited development. We believe there are only two potential end uses, which would include hotel/office or medical office/life sciences,” CBRE wrote. “Our valuation rage of between $2,400,000 and $4,200,000 translates to a price per developable square foot of between $20 and $35 per square foot.”

According to an April 2018 memorandum from Farmington Town Manager Kathleen Eagan, former Hartford Finance Director Adam Cloud informed Farmington that he was “working with a potential end user,” and that Farmington was looking to re-zone the area for research and development use, including a possible bioscience area for Jackson Labs.

The property was deeded to the MERF in July 2017 after receiving approval by the City Council as part of the 2016-2017 budget. Hartford resident and real estate agent Leslie Hammond, who opposes the proposed truck stop, says she remembers it well.

“The city was in trouble financially and they obviously had to make a pension contribution and before I know it, Bronin comes up with this idea. I was going to city council meetings and city council was a deer in the headlights because the park had been closed since 2015,” Hammond said. “It doesn’t look good to me, to play loose. I know the city was in trouble, but I don’t think you can do stuff like that with a pension where people are trying to get a return.”

“They said it was worth $5 million and now it’s worth two-something? Does anybody have any oversight on that?” Hammond said. “Now we end up with this truck stop.”

The city’s Pension Commission, which provides that oversight, recently experienced a shakeup when two of its three members, including former State Treasurer Shawn Wooden, resigned citing concerns about how Hartford City Treasurer Carmen Sierra is managing the pension fund. 

According to a review of meeting minutes, the Pension Commission, which is listed as the owner of the property, held several executive sessions throughout 2025, passing motions to move forward with the sale of the property and accepting the findings of a report on the property by Shipman & Goodwin.

A February 2026 email from Hartford Chief Investment Officer Gary Draghi to a real estate broker confirmed “on behalf of Hartford City Treasurer Carmen Sierra,” that the city’s pension fund “supports the Wetlands Application relating to 8261 Fienemann Road.” The email chain was then forwarded to Farmington’s Wetlands Officer.

Sierra did not return Inside Investigator’s request for comment regarding the Batterson Park land deal.

Hartford’s pension fund was 74.4 percent funded in 2017 with $369 million in unfunded liabilities, according to the 2017 actuarial report. At the time, Hartford residents had to pay $44.2 million in annual payments. 

According to the latest figures presented to the City’s Pension Commission, the 1.1 billion MERF is 70 percent funded with a $488 million unfunded liabilities. It should be noted, however, that Hartford reduced its assumed return rate for MERF from 7.5 percent to 6.75 percent, which can increase the unfunded liabilities, but lower assumptions are generally considered safer for managing plans.

City officials expect to pay roughly $55 million to MERF this year, although the annual payment may have to be increased to account for police overtime, which has been costing far more than accounted for in cost projections, according to Pension Commission meeting minutes.

And while city employees may take a loss on that deal, it is members of the surrounding neighborhoods and communities who have been making the most noise in opposing development of the property based on environmental and water quality concerns. Objections raised by the public before the Farmington Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commission has pushed Noble Energy to adjust their plans.

Attorney Stephani A. Roman, who owns property on Slater Road which abuts the Batterson Park property, filed as an intervenor with the Farmington Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commission and said at the May 20 meeting that despite Noble’s changes, “the proposed project is reasonably likely to pollute, impair, or destroy natural resources,” according to meeting minutes. 

She was followed by a long list of residents speaking out in opposition to the proposed sale and project. The meeting was continued to June 3 and is scheduled for a hearing before the town’s Planning and Zoning Committee in late July, including New Britain Alderman for the Fourth Ward, John McNamara. 

“There is a growing concern about neighborhood encroachment,” McNamara said in an interview. “It’s a densely populated area; a thousand people live in the immediate area.”

McNamara says that, along with Farmington, Noble Energy will also have to come before New Britain’s committees, and that the Planning and Zoning Committee is already watching the process and arguments unfold in Farmington.

“I would hope that they’d look elsewhere in the immediate area for another site that is not an encroachment on New Britain neighborhoods and does not pose any threat to the watershed,” McNamara said. “It’s right on the cusp of the Batterson Park reopening which is both Hartford, Farmington, and New Britain have come together on.”

Batterson Park was shuttered in 2015 due to Hartford’s financial problems and fell into disrepair, but has since seen a public push in all three towns to get the park open to the public once again. In 2021, House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, led legislation to get $10 million in state funds appropriated to redesign and open the park. The project broke ground in 2025.

Despite the park’s long-time reputation as a summer swimming destination, there will be no swimming permitted for the foreseeable future due to pollution and highway runoff that have accumulated in the water. 

Hammond believes the addition of a truck stop with diesel fuel just down the street will only add to the problem. 

“It’s truck stop a third of a mile from the pond where we hope to have swimming someday,” Hammond said.

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