Ray Dalio, founder of $130 billion asset manager Bridgewater Associates, is not making friends in his company’s new hometown of Stamford, Conn.
Residents and officials of the coastal city are up in arms after early development of a piece of an 80-acre plot of land — now Bridgewater’s proposed waterfront home — resulted in the surprise demolition of part of a historic 14-acre boat yard.
The demolition was specifically prohibited by Stamford officials.
Tension between Dalio’s developer, Building and Land Technology, and boat yard supporters grew more heated when BLT refused to reveal their plans for bringing back the historic facility.
It didn’t help matters when, on Aug. 15, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy announced grand plans for Bridgewater to relocate to a piece of the prized development that includes a marina and what was once the largest full-service boat yard in the Northeast.
Malloy wooed Bridgewater to the Harbor Point site with $115 million in financial incentives.
“To me, this is the latest outrage by Governor Malloy — giving a water view to a hedge-fund operator and taking away a boat yard that serviced well over 1,000 boats and boaters each year,” said Randy Dinter, a boat owner and member of the group Save Our Boatyard, founded by Maureen Boylan after the boat yard demolition.
A meeting of the local governing board was expected to discuss the issue last night. BLT has built a smaller, temporary boat yard which the locals feel is inadequate.
Boylan said she and other Stamford residents are launching a letter-writing campaign to persuade city officials to reject the new headquarters.
Tensions between BLT and city officials over the boat yard were already high before Bridgewater entered the picture due to BLT’s refusal to submit a plan for rebuilding.
“They’re enjoying the benefits of the deal and violating the one thing [the boat yard] that we cared about,” said a city official who asked to remain anonymous. “This was the one we said we wanted them to leave alone.”
In July, the city served the developer a cease-and-desist order demanding the developer make its plans known.
BLT, run by brothers Paul and Carl Kuehner, is appealing the order. John Freeman, a spokesman for BLT, said the company plans to officially submit its application for the Bridgewater project in September.
Freeman told The Post he thinks the city of Stamford has largely come around to the new plan, which promises to relocate the boat yard to a 3.5-acre site nearby.
Thomas Mills, chairman of the Stamford Zoning Board, yesterday declined to say whether he would oppose the plan, because it had yet to be officially submitted. But he made it clear opposition could be high as the proposed site is one-quarter the size of the original marina.
“There’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and lot of feathers have been ruffled,” Mills said.