Commissioner Roche brings up CWDI lawsuit, hopes city will withdraw it

CAMBRIDGE — As the open session of the Cambridge City Council meeting on May 13 came near a close, tensions rose.

Minutes before entering closed session, Commissioner Brian Roche brought up the City Council’s pending lawsuit against Cambridge Waterfront Development Inc. The lawsuit, filed May 1 against CWDI, CWDI Holdings and Yacht Maintenance Company, alleges CWDI is in violation of a transfer agreement it entered into with the city in June 2021.

It seeks $75,000 in damages and requests temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctions stopping defendants from transferring any portion of the property in violation of the covenants of the 2021 transfer agreement with the city.

In the meeting, Roche said he hoped the city could withdraw the lawsuit because it could be jeopardizing a critical aspect of CWDI’s Cambridge Harbor project, which is a project to develop the space along the Cambridge waterfront that includes a promenade, parks and a boutique hotel with a restaurant and bar.

Roche talked about the project plans for public spaces — including an expanded public promenade and tree park — and a working waterfront. He said that these parts of the project are things that the community has said it wants and that a lot of it can’t or won’t happen while the litigation is pending.

He said the $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to expand the promenade cannot be pursued because of the city’s lawsuit.

“I understand the issues the city has with this development, and I’m not discounting them,” Roche said, adding that his understanding is that the project should be looked at in two phases: one being the public parts of the project and two being the developable parts of the project.

According to a community update event CWDI hosted in April, the first phase of the project would include the creation of a boutique hotel, the expansion of Yacht Maintenance and a partnership with Richardson Maritime Museum. The second phase of the project would include the creation of residential units and retail spaces, seven acres of open public spaces and parking.

As Roche talked about the phases of the project, Atkiss interrupted to ask, “Do you want to have CWDI come and do a presentation on the calendar for this?”

Roche said he was sorry and his point is that there are two phases.

“If the city wanted to actually encumber and really come to the table, we could have waited until they —”

“We did ask them to come to the table,” Atkiss said, cutting Roche off. “I was in that meeting. I know you have a different outcome from what happened at that meeting, but I was there. And we did come to the table and we did ask them to work with us.”

Atkiss said CWDI did not work with them, and that is why the city is now in this position.

“Just to be perfectly clear,” she said. “Because a lot of what you’re staying is not really factual.”

The lawsuit is one piece in a series of actions the city has taken regarding its concerns with the Cambridge Harbor project. In October, the city wrote a letter to CWDI expressing concerns with the project. On March 18, former City Manager Tom Carroll submitted his resignation and said he was resigning over concerns with the project. April 16, Cambridge Mayor Stephen Rideout held a meeting where he proposed amendments to CWDI’s Articles of Incorporation.

Roche said that withdrawing the lawsuit could allow the city to “come back to the table” to see if the CWDI Board of Directors is willing to dive into “the real concerns” including tax increment financing, requests for proposals, the YMCA and other issues.

As Roche listed these concerns, Atkiss added a few to the list: “property transfer, covenants,” she said.

Roche said another concern is whether the lawsuit could affect the search for the city’s next city manager.

“Are we actually risking our possibility of attracting a good candidate with being subject to what could be a very prolonged and intractable legal situation?” he asked.

At the end of his comments, Roche said this was something he had to bring up and apologized to Atkiss for upsetting her. When Rideout gave Atkiss an opportunity to respond to Roche’s comments, Atkiss said she would pass.