Press Release  Polar Park Construction Manager Agrees To Pay $1.9 Million Over False Claims Allegations

BOSTON — The joint venture company in charge of constructing Worcester’s Polar Park baseball stadium has agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that it made a variety of misrepresentations regarding its allocation of work to disadvantaged businesses, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today. 

The assurance of discontinuance, filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that Gilbane/Hunt, a joint venture between Gilbane Building Company of Providence, RI and Hunt Construction Group, Inc. of Indianapolis, IN, violated the state’s False Claims Act and consumer protection laws by falsely stating in its bid for the Polar Park project that it planned to maximize participation of woman and minority-owned businesses (W/MBEs), and then, once selected to manage the project, misrepresented the status of W/MBE participation to the Worcester Redevelopment Authority (WRA) until the project was substantially complete.

“Construction companies in Massachusetts must live up to their promises to create opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses on public projects,” AG Healey said. “If a company says that the inclusion of diverse businesses is a priority in an effort to win a public contract, we are going to ensure that they are held accountable for those representations.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Gilbane/Hunt will pay $1.9 million to the state. The AG’s Office will return $500,000 to the City of Worcester as restitution, and the City has agreed to use the proceeds of the settlement to promote W/MBE participation in government contracting. Gilbane Building Company and Hunt Construction will each engage a monitor for a three-year period to ensure compliance with all contract requirements and state laws pertaining to W/MBE participation on public construction projects. 

“The City of Worcester plans to utilize the $500,000 proceeds along with $550,000 we have already committed through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help implement our Minority and Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) initiative,” said Eric D. Batista, Worcester City Manager. “Our work to improve government contracting opportunities with underrepresented businesses is one of our recent initiatives to ensure our economic development strategy is more equitable and inclusive.”

Gilbane/Hunt submitted a bid for the role of Construction Manager At-Risk on the Polar Park project in early 2019. As part of the bid, Gilbane/Hunt committed to using “best efforts” to achieve the project’s 20% combined W/MBE goal and, further, stated that it would implement a “robust action plan” to ensure that those goals were met.  Based on the representations in Gilbane/Hunt’s bid, the WRA awarded Gilbane/Hunt the contract for the Polar Park project. Once the project was underway, however, Gilbane/Hunt did little to encourage W/MBE participation on the project and did not track where the project’s W/MBE spending stood with respect to the 20% goal.

Additionally, the contract required Gilbane/Hunt to provide monthly updates to the WRA on the status of W/MBE spending on the project. Instead of reporting the real-time status of W/MBE spending as the project progressed, Gilbane/Hunt reported projected values resulting in the WRA believing that Gilbane/Hunt was achieving 17-18% W/MBE participation when, in fact, only 11-12% of the work was allocated to W/MBEs.

In 2021, GBH News reported that Gilbane/Hunt fell short of its W/MBE combined participation goal of 20% and misled the WRA to believe that the project’s rate of W/MBE participation was higher than it actually was. A subsequent investigation by the AG’s Office found that Gilbane/Hunt made material misrepresentations in its bid for the Polar Park project, failed to provide the WRA with accurate monthly updates on the status of W/MBE participation, and submitted multiple requests for payment that falsely certified its compliance with contract terms. The AG’s investigation also determined that Gilbane Building Company failed to disclose the existence of this investigation as required in multiple filings with the Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance in 2021 and 2022.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Sean Hildenbrandt of the AG’s False Claims Division. Assistance was provided by Division Chief Amy Crafts, Deputy Division Chief Christina Chan, and Paralegal Cara Bradley, also of the False Claims Division, and Edward Cherubin of the AG’s Civil Investigations Division.

The False Claims Division was created by AG Healey in 2015 to safeguard public funds and promote integrity and accountability in public contracting. AG Healey urges anyone with information about suspected fraud or abuse relating to state or municipal contracts or funds to contact the False Claims Division’s tip line at 617-963-2600.

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