Developer files complaint against state over UMass-Lowell dorm project

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

A Lowell developer has filed a complaint against the state Attorney General's office and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell after losing a $20 million dormitory project.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court, contends the construction project was a private development and not subject to public bidding laws. The Attorney General's office ruled last month that the university violated state construction laws in awarding Brasi Development Corp. the contract, and the university subsequently backed out of the project and severed its lease with Brasi.

The complaint seeks to overturn the ruling so the 400-student dormitory can proceed as planned. Lawyers for the developer said it has spent about $2 million on construction.

University officials share Brasi's opposition to the ruling, denouncing it in a letter to the Attorney General's office last month as filled with "egregious misapprehensions of fact." The Attorney General's office issued its ruling in response to a protest from a developer who was passed over for the contract.

UMass Lowell had counted on the dormitory to ease a deepening housing shortage, and asserted that the project was private because Brasi Development would have continued to own and maintain the off-campus property.

State lawyers, however, found that the university was directing construction and would likely assume ownership of the dormitory at some point.

Bidding the project publicly requires soliciting bids for subcontractors and paying workers prevailing wages. In this case, it would have caused costs to climb almost 40 percent, university officials say.

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