In the long-running battle of the billionaire versus the boat owners, it’s the über-wealthy hedge-fund mogul’s fight that appears dead in the water.
In a resounding 5-0 vote late Wednesday, the Zoning Board of Appeals in Stamford, Conn., continued to block Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates from continuing to develop a waterfront site for a shiny new 750,000-square-foot $800 million headquarters.
Bridgewater’s developer, Building and Land Technology, ran afoul of approved plans by demolishing a historic boatyard on the 14-acre site.
The move by BLT to demolish Brewer Yacht Haven energized its boat owners — who have been battling the better-financed Dalio and his team for more than two years.
“These developers thought they were just going to ramrod their plans through, by-passing our rules and expected the boards to just accept it,” Maureen Boylan, the head of a group called Save Our Boatyard, wrote in an email to her compatriots after the ruling.
“Well, they haven’t, and we applaud them for taking a stand,” she wrote.
The site had been the largest full-service boatyard in the Northeast.
Gov. Dan Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford, personally lured Dalio to Stamford in January 2011, offering $115 million in incentives.
Bridgewater’s new headquarters was also supported by then-Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia. But it became a political hot potato when part of the boatyard was demolished.
Dalio, 64, who owns Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund with $120 billion in assets, had promised to find the boatyard a new home — but that plan, on a smaller lot, appears to have gone nowhere.
Pavia, who did not run for re-election last year, left office at the end of 2013.
Bridgewater gained notoriety in recent years for being run almost like a cult, with a somewhat bizarre culture of criticism introduced by Dalio and enshrined in a book he gave to employees, called “The Principles.”
But now some other principles are taking precedence.
Boylan said that the Bridgewater development fracas was the “No. 1 campaign issue” in last year’s mayoral election, with Stamford’s new mayor, Democrat David Martin, siding with the activists.
BLT now has to come back to the zoning board with plans to create a new boatyard — and that’s looking like a tall order.
The new mayor has said he won’t approve the proposed new home for the boatyard.
“Bridgewater is probably not coming to Stamford,” said Boylan.
Bridgewater did not return a request for comment.
The Stamford issue is just one piece of bad news for Dalio.
After market-beating, double-digit returns in 2010 and 2011, last year Bridgewater’s performance lagged those of other hedge funds, as well as the broader markets.
Its flagship Pure Alpha fund gained 3.48 percent, and what had been marketed as its least risky fund, All Weather, was down 4.62 percent.