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NEW BEDFORD — A damning report on the entire history of the Star Store since 1996 — its public procurement, upkeep, and ultimate demise — was released Monday by the state Office of the Inspector General. The 138-page report details how incompetence, mismanagement, and wastefulness abounded among all involved public parties: the University of Massachusetts, the state’s Division of Capital and Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), the city of New Bedford, and the city’s legislative delegation, including Sen. Mark Montigny.
“The state-funded lease of the Star Store on behalf of [UMass Dartmouth] was flawed from its inception and resulted in a waste of public funds,” wrote Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro. In total, Shapiro found that taxpayers had furnished more than $60 million in payments to the Star Store’s owner, Paul Downey, on terms “unfavorable” to the commonwealth. He said necessary improvements to the building were ignored due to ambiguities in the lease, despite “generous” provisions in the rental payments to provide for that upkeep.
Public entities failed to coordinate the $1 purchase of the arts campus building at the lease’s end, which Shapiro said led to the “wasting of nearly $4 million in public funds” in short-term leases until UMass Dartmouth abruptly vacated the building in August 2023.
In depth: Continuing Star Store coverage
Read all The Light’s coverage of the departure of UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts from the Star Store.
“The collective failure to make a decision either to purchase the building or plan to vacate the building as the end of the lease was approaching was fiscally irresponsible and wasteful,” Shapiro said.
The report validates the claims of long-protesting arts students, who have decried UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Mark Fuller’s announcement to move classes and studios to a former Bed Bath & Beyond storefront in Dartmouth just weeks before the fall 2023 semester. The Star Store’s abrupt closure was lamented by community members, state legislators, and Mayor Jon Mitchell, who all credited the Star Store with sparking a revival of arts and culture in the city’s downtown area. Chancellor Fuller had previously said that the university was committed to continuing its College of Visual and Performing Arts programs in New Bedford.
Ryan Merrill, a spokesperson for UMass Dartmouth, provided the following statement: “It’s clear that the Inspector General’s Office had grave concerns from the outset about the flawed legislation that led to the Commonwealth leasing the Star Store. Despite its complex history and the abrupt withdrawal of state funding that forced the university to vacate the building, UMass Dartmouth is very proud of the art that our students and faculty created in the Star Store and the role that the university continues to play in the revitalization of New Bedford.”
An Inspector General’s investigation into the university’s exit from the Star Store was in part called for by New Bedford’s state senator, Mark Montigny, who has positioned himself as an ally of the arts students and faculty against the opaque dealings of the university and DCAMM.
But the report detailed Montigny’s culpability in creating a deeply flawed original lease.
Shapiro writes that the building’s procurement was pushed through in 1996 “at the urging of New Bedford’s state senator” — referencing Montigny, who has been in office since 1993. Shapiro continues, “Then-Inspector General Cerasoli raised concerns that the anticipated procurement would not be fair and competitive since the Star Store was the only building in downtown New Bedford that met the very detailed criteria specified in the 1996 legislation.”
Despite concerns about the non-competitive procurement process, the Star Store deal went through. “It comes as no surprise that this sham procurement resulted in a flawed lease,” Shapiro wrote.
In a statement, Sen. Montigny wrote, “I remain immensely proud of leading a project that paved the way for the downtown now bustling with restaurants, world-class museums, art galleries, and so much more.” Montigny added that, “During the initial genesis of this project there was a burning need to ignite economic development in New Bedford and it required creative solutions to get it done.”
An aide to Sen. Montigny, Audra Riding, provided further comment over email: “The [Inspector General’s] concerns about the initial legislation have been well documented and do not negate the important positive economic impact the project provided for New Bedford.”
Shapiro’s report went on to find that once the building was occupied by UMass Dartmouth, its management did not improve. “The Legislature, DCAMM, UMD, UMBA (the UMass Building Authority) and the owner of the Star Store (Paul Downey)” did not effectively communicate about upkeep responsibilities — “which resulted in a lack of responsibility to adhere to the lease’s terms, particularly regarding maintenance and capital repairs.”
Shapiro said the lease made it clear that Downey was responsible for routine repairs, but that responsibility for large capital improvements, such as HVAC projects or roof repairs, was not clear. “That ambiguity resulted in a lack of responsibility by any party for those larger improvements. Thus… none of the parties — the Developer, DCAMM, nor UMD — sought to leverage those funds to initiate improvements.”
This failure to maintain and improve the building occurred despite “generous” provisions in the rental payments to provide for upkeep, Shapiro wrote. And when it came time to potentially buy the building, none of the involved public entities had established any reasonable metrics to determine the economic or community benefits of the building, Shapiro wrote, which left his office no way to justify “the millions in public funds expended.”
The report, while scathing, said there was no evidence of fraud in these dealings. As a result, the Inspector General does not intend to pursue prosecution or civil recovery proceedings.
What the report settles on is advice for future lawmakers and state agencies so that the $60 million “sham” procurement and “wasteful” spending are not repeated on future projects.
In particular, the Inspector General offers guidelines for DCAMM, saying the agency must “actively manage leases … rather than simply assisting tenant agencies with landlord compliance issues,” among 12 recommendations.
Advice to the UMass system was to better communicate its vision for properties and capital projects, and to “be an active tenant.”
Advice to the Legislature was to “limit proposals for noncompetitive procurements” and require written agreements from all partners and yearly reports from DCAMM on future purchases.
Mayor Mitchell said Monday: “The Inspector General’s report revealed that at a fundamental level UMass Dartmouth never took seriously its responsibility to plan for the future of the Star Store campus past the expiration of the original 20-year lease.”
“The businesses, artists, and residents of downtown New Bedford deserved better,” Mitchell said.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
And a big “THANK YOU” to our Senator Mark C.W. Montigny! Is he our “watchdog ? More likely our “hotdog”! It makes you want to lean Republican in the next election. Unfortunately the 20% voter turnout works for him! Remember, he was convicted and censured by his senatorial peers for political patronage too! Who cares, right!
“Makes you want to lean Republican”? Are you kidding? Its because these crooked politicians keep getting in time after time. This state is so left leaning, thats why this bull keeps happening. Democrats are dirty and could care less about us. People wake up!!!! Vote these ingrates out. They all suck , but Republicans suck less.
The Light would do a huge public service by providing a link to the full report for all to read. While there is blame to go around, UMass and the current Chancellor, whatever their PR excuses, deserve the bulk of the blame for occupying the facility for two decades without pursuing remedies for short and long term maintenance issues. He failed to purchase the building in defiance of the lease and state law and he failed to avail the University of available bonding to correct Star Store’s deficiencies. The left town with speaking to anyone in authority. They scoffed at the Mayor’s ingenious proposal to buy and lease back the building in a way for UMDto avoid costly “green building” codes. What previous UMD administrators had seen as an economic stimulus for the downtown, this out of town, out of touch Chancellor saw as an onerous burden holding back his highly questionable vision of UMD as a leading research university. How out of touch this man is with the legacy role of the University of Massachusetts built to serve the needs of southeastern Massachusetts.
Richard, the link is embedded in the second and third words of the article.
Walega openly calling for UMD to publically loophole state law? Bad idea!!
Unfortunately for the tax-payers government procurement issues are never really reported in the media, so kudos to The Light for reporting on this. More scrutiny on public procurement please!
Blah blah blah..a whole lot of nothing in the inspector Generals report..Bad leases and procurement by Sen Montigny and the state agencies..horrible maintenance bu Downey. An uncaring and unethical attitude by Umass Dartmouth by an admin who abandoned the city and the students who trusted their creative futures to them..WHO would ever trust them to do the right thing? WHO would ever believe the Commonwealth of Mass w its empty promises to aid the Gateway cities or restore the small business downtown whose economic future they have jeopardized if not destroyed.And goodie two shoes for the “scathing” report which promises no compensation for the student victims of Umass Downey and the legislature malfeasance and a slap on the wrist for the criminals “to avoid such bad deals in the future:” yeah right? The CVPA UMASS good ship STAR STORE has sailed and foundered and no scathing report will resurrect it from the deep…lesson. learned NEVER depend on the commonwealth it’s phony politicians and overpaid State University pencil pushers to have the best interests of students faculty and small business in mind..go hide out in your labyrinth concrete corridors of the bunker in a bog in Dartmouth..less and less of us have any respect for you any longer!
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While a “scathing report” is better, I suppose, than nothing, nothing is, in fact, what students are left with. What now? Does anyone really think the old BB&B space is a solution? Is the CVPA done for? Certainly downtown N.B. is left in the lurch. Bad actors all around is obvious but I don’t see anything about the future here.
What is best for the art students of UMD?
Everyone should read this report. It makes it crystal clear that from the beginning that this was a sweetheart deal for Downey engineered by Montigny.
It was Montigny that removed the funding at the 11th hour and forcing the departure of UMass.
It was Montigny that signed off on the flawed lease that allowed Downey to escape the basic maintenance responsibilities of every landlord, and to leave the building in deplorable condition.
The report also makes it clear that almost everything Jack Spillane has been claiming has been wrong. Is he simply incompetent or is he protecting Montigny?
I wonder if there will be any correction published or any accountability for the Light’s only opinion writer getting nearly all the important facts wrong and misdirecting blame away from those who are responsible for this mess.
As a regular reader, I think the professional integrity of the Light requires it.
I agree, that Montigny was involved from the get-go to the implosion. 60m In Downey’s pocket without any responsibility even though funds were provided for capital repairs. Montigny can try to walk this back but is the conduit for this failure.