Top Lobbyist Hired by Arizona Company Proposing $400M Soccer Stadium in Pawtucket

Top Lobbyist Hired by Arizona Company Proposing $400M Soccer Stadium in Pawtucket

Former Rhode Island Speaker of the House Bill Murphy, who has close ties to Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello, has been tapped by Arizona-based Fortuitous Partners to lobby for what GoLocal has learned is a financial package worth tens of millions of dollars in financial incentives.

Fortuitous Partners in December proposed a $400 million Pawtucket soccer stadium and mixed-used project, of which $300 million would be privately raised from investors seeking to leverage the project’s tax incentives, as it is located in a federally designated “opportunity zone.”

In addition to getting Murphy, who also lobbies for the National Rifle Association’s Second Amendment Coalition and Twin River Casino among his many clients, Fortuitous has also hired Mike Ryan, Jr. of DS Strategies and Peter Baptista. 

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Each will be paid $5,000 a month, according to recently filed state documents.

The General Assembly announced on March 13 the cancellation of House and Senate sessions and committee hearings due to coronavirus. Sessions and hearings have been canceled again next week. 

New Lobbying Power for Pawtucket Project

The Fortuitous project, titled Tidewater Landing Development, is slated to include:

• A mixed-use development with more than 200 housing units and 100,000 square feet of retail, food and beverage, and other community space
• An indoor sports event center
• A 200-room hotel
• A 7,500-seat stadium that will house a USL Championship soccer team, expected to begin to play in the 2022 season
• 200,000 square feet of commercial office space, which is proposed to include bars and restaurants

At the press conference announcing the project, Governor Gina Raimondo and Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said the state’s commitment would be limited to infrastructure — roads, walkways and a pedestrian bridge.

Much of the site is located on the contaminated land owned by National Grid.

GoLocal has learned that at least investment firms have turned down investing in the project. And, Fortuitous refuses to answer questions about raising any funds for the project.

A Fortuitous spokesperson in Rhode Island told GoLocal, “We remain 100% committed to making this project a reality for the community and the State of Rhode Island.”

Many of the proposed opportunity zone projects have stopped dead in their tracks due to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.

The IRS has stepped in extended deadlines to try and salvage the program launched by President Donald Trump’s administration. Opportunity zones were created as a part of the 2017 Trump tax package.

The program has come under fire by Congress.

“The Opportunity Zone program has been troubled from the start. The Treasury Department has been steering potentially billions in tax breaks to Donald Trump’s friends, and there are no safeguards to ensure taxpayers are not simply subsidizing handouts for billionaires with no benefit to the low-income communities this program was supposed to help,” U.S. Senate Committee member Ron Wyden said. “Republicans who support the program should work with Democrats to ensure it does not become a boondoggle.”

Read more about the program here.

The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation’s Matt Sheaff told GoLocal, “We remain in regular contact with the development team and the city of Pawtucket. The project continues to move forward. As you know the Pawtucket City council recently named Fortuitous as the preferred developer. We look forward to additional progress in the coming weeks and months."

In December, an investigation by GoLocal found that the partners in the firm had a checkered background

GoLocal found that one of the partners in Fortuitous, not Brett Johnson — but a man named Berke Bakay — was the head of a major restaurant chain that was forced into bankruptcy in 2019 shortly after he led the company as the top corporate executive and as a leader of the board.

Johnson also has had a high profile business background. Johnson and his brother Grant Johnson are partners today in a firm called Benevolent Capital.

They used to run a firm called Benevolent Capital Partners and another company with a similar name that Brett Johnson said he was not involved in. That firm, Benevolent Partners, LP, according to Brett Johnson was solely controlled by his brother Grant and it was ordered by courts in California and Connecticut to pay millions for “intentional misrepresentation” and breach of contract.

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In January, GoLocal reported that the group — despite having yet to disclose any investors in their project -- was also looking past Rhode Island.

Fortuitous Johnson and Bakay announced that they are looking to do developments in Baltimore, Cleveland, and other cities around the country.

The pronouncement was made during the taping of a business podcast with Mike Consol on "Shop Talk: Opportunity zone projects anchored by sports stadiums."

Johnson during the interview said that Fortuitous Partners is also looking at Baltimore, MD; Cleveland, OH; and other cities for their opportunity zone driven sports complex model.

He said that the firm is also looking at Buffalo, NY and Oklahoma City, OK.

Johnson told Consol that the costs of the developments would cost between $100 million and $1 billion.