Despite claims to state, $2.5M Paramount roof rehab overseen by Heriberto Flores team never completed

SPRINGFIELD – Atop the Paramount Theater , it's as though roofers broke for lunch one day and never came back.

Though the job wasn't finished, every penny from a $2.5 million state allocation to rehab the property was paid out. A project leader told the state a leaking roof had been replaced. Yet rain still pours through holes atop the historic Main Street building.

Public money flowed into work that failed to leave the historic theater ready for its next act, an investigation by The Republican has found.

Building materials sat stacked but idle, with stepladders leaning against parapets, aerial photos taken over several years show. Buckets of fasteners were simply left behind, according to a roofer who visited recently. He said the roof, a key focus of the rehab, lay in "very bad condition."

It's remained that way for years, satellite images archived on Google Earth and drone images taken by The Republican show.

"There are leaks all over the place," said Tom Barrett, a roofing contractor at Premier Building Associates in North Branford, Connecticut. "This whole thing needs a complete removal and replacement."

The nonprofit that owned the building until last year, the New England Farm Workers' Council, told the state in 2022 that work to replace the roof was complete, according to public records obtained by The Republican. An entity controlled by Heriberto Flores and Jose Perez was paid $428,000 in allowable fees for project management.

The redevelopment project petered out around the time that the council, which Flores founded in 1971, was found to have been misusing $1.8 million in federal funds for low-income heating assistance to prop up the organization.

Rehab that failed

Contractors and developers give varying reasons for why work stopped: the disruption of COVID-19, the condition of the 99-year-old theater and financial pressures on the council.

Today, Mohan C. Sachdev, the Connecticut veterinarian and real estate developer who bought the Paramount at auction in September 2024 is planning his own restoration.

The council, led by the politically connected Flores, received the $2.5 million state earmark for a redevelopment project in 2018. That money, coupled with tax credits and the promise of a $3.6 million city-backed loan from the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development, was to have kickstarted a $41 million rehab of both the 1,750-seat Paramount and the adjacent Massasoit House hotel.

But the HUD loan was never made, the tax credits never claimed and the hotel project died.

The Republican informed the state office that paid the invoices, the former Executive Office of Housing and Community Development, that the roofing project had not been completed, despite statements to the contrary.

A spokesperson for the agency said recipients are required to submit a final report and it would be breach of the agreement if the report was knowingly inaccurate.

'Completely abandoned'

Inside today, the decaying Paramount smells of damp mold. Construction debris sits where hotel rooms were to have gone.

Perez, the Flores associate, declared in an interview that the roof job was finished, but The Republican found clear evidence to the contrary. Perez later tempered that claim, but said when first asked about the project that all went well and was sorely needed.

He said this spring that the roof was replaced to "save the structure" and that it was signed off on by an engineer. "It would have collapsed. It was in that bad a shape," Perez said. "It's all done. That building at the Paramount is ready for construction as a hotel."

In 2022, he made that claim to the state. The dilapidated roof was replaced, he wrote in a final report.

But after the council sold the building last year, its new owner reported that water pours in through the roof, wrenching fanciful, decorative plaster from lath. More roof work is urgently needed, the owner said.

"There is streaming water coming down from the roof, it's awful," Chris Hill, an architect hired by the new owner, told the city's Community Preservation Committee this spring, urging it to support the building's renovation. "It can't fall to its demise. It just can't."

A contractor for Sachdev, the building's current owner, said the roof project was "completely abandoned," and the scene atop the building was unlike anything he had seen in decades of experience.

The continued decay of the downtown landmark has ripple effects. The stalled Paramount project has dragged down efforts to rehabilitate the northern blocks of Main Street between Worthington Street and a railroad bridge.

"It still feels like Pain Street," said state Sen. Adam Gomez who, like many Springfielders, grew up going to the Paramount.

'We believe it will pay off'

In 2011, the council bought the Paramount Theater building for $1.7 million. The last time it had been open with any regularity was as a nightclub, the Hippodrome.

Flores had dreams for the property. At the time, he predicted the space would host high school graduations, parties, concerts and Latin events. "You can have all kinds of performances here," he said.

Penn National Gaming made the Paramount the centerpiece of a 2012 casino proposal that would have included The Republican's property further north on Main Street. But MGM Springfield won the bid and a $970 million investment went instead to the South End.

In 2018, Gov. Charlie Baker announced an earmark -funded $2.5 million allocation for the council to put toward restoring the property as a theater and boutique hotel. Baker called the project a "linchpin" for downtown redevelopment. "We believe it will pay off," he said.

Baker, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and others posed for photos at the event.

A new roof would be installed that year, Flores said at the time.

The roof repair and replacement work began on the building in 2019 and was estimated to cost $1.4 million, according to the permit filed with the city, the only one for the address in recent years.

Reliable Roofing and Sheet Metal was a project contractor. Invoices filed with the state show that North Country Roofing was also tapped to do work. In total, both companies were paid $1.5 million from the state funds, documents obtained through the public records request show. Reliable Roofing and Sheet Metal was paid $854,478. North Country was paid $646,280.

Funding runs out

James O'Donovan, president of Reliable Roofing and Sheet Metal, said in a statement that a structural engineer found that the old concrete roof decking was so deteriorated by water damage that it was "unsafe and prone to collapse." The material had to be jackhammered out and removed with a crane, he said.

Workers began to install new roofing, and then the COVID-19 pandemic shut the project down, O'Donovan said in response to questions from The Republican. When it was possible to bring workers back, the contractor was told there was no money to do so, O'Donovan's statement says.

That timetable lines up with invoices submitted to the state: The vast majority of the contractors' bills were dated between 2019 and the spring of 2020. A few were dated later, including in early 2021, when Reliable Roofing and Sheet Metal invoiced about $6,000 for repairs, including patching a roof leak. The most recent invoice was from June 2022, a bill for $27,400 for roof testing and analysis.

North Country Roofing did not reply to phone calls asking for comment. The company also did not respond to a registered letter with questions about the project that was sent to its address. That company's invoices, dated 2019 and early 2020, detail work on initial preparation, masonry, demolition and structural repair.

Permit never closed out

The original building permit for the roof repair and replacement project was never closed out, city records show. The contractor never notified the city that the work was completed and didn't request an inspection, according to Building Commissioner Steve Desilets.

According to the building code, an inspection is supposed to happen, but it's not uncommon for it to be skipped, Desilets said. Often contractors don't call the city for the inspection if they don't need a certificate of completion. His office is too short-staffed to send people out to check and close permits out, he said.

Aerial images taken by The Republican show roof work was active in 2019. But for the years after the pandemic's onset, it appears in Google Earth satellite photos taken about annually that material sat on the roof untouched. A cart, cones and pile of items stayed in the same spot until at least this spring.

When reached this month, Perez said the roof was installed based on the building code and approved. "As far as I'm concerned we got that project done," he said. "We did everything by the books." He only had time for a brief conversation, he said, and attempts for a follow-up interview were not successful.

When told via text message that a contractor said the roof replacement was not finished because funds ran out, Perez replied in a text: "I was not the project manager. I don't know anything about that."

Paperwork shows, however, that Perez held a managerial role.

Paramount Springfield Limited Partnership was paid by state funds to manage the project. Perez controls an entity that is a partner in that LLP. His name — and signature — is present in the paperwork turned over to the state. The contract with the state lists him as the contract manager.

Flores didn't respond to questions about the project, including written questions given to his attorney.

William Bennett, an attorney who represents Flores and has worked with the council in the past, said that besides the financial constraints, he doesn't know why work stopped. He directed questions about construction to the contractors.

He said the council was forced to give up on the Paramount. "They just couldn't afford to maintain it anymore," Bennett said. "It just was draining all their resources."

"It was a great disappointment, I know, for Mr. Flores," Bennett said. Bennett declined to facilitate an interview with Flores, citing concern about his client's health.

Where the money went

Of the $2.5 million in public money, about $1 million was paid to vendors other than the two contractors. It was used for work on the building and planning for redevelopment into a hotel and theater.

For example, $30,000 was spent on tax credit attorneys, $24,500 on historical consulting and $26,000 on structural analysis, the invoices show.

Main Street Hospitality Group, which owns the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, was paid $65,000 for development, budgeting and marketing work, the invoices say. The company was not involved in renovations and was working on the project as a possible hotel partner, said CEO Sarah Eustis.

"The feeling was that Springfield needed and deserved more good hotel opportunities," she said. But the plans didn't work out. "There wasn't the funding and the people to keep it going as I recall, especially coming out of the pandemic," she said.

Flores' farmworkers outfit was facing other headwinds as well. Around the time the Paramount redevelopment project appeared to slow, in February 2021 the council owed $147,000 in unpaid taxes and fees on its downtown Springfield properties. City officials voiced concerns about construction delays .

At the time, Flores was reassuring. "In this business, you cannot panic," Flores said. "It's development."

But Perez concedes now that the council — and the Paramount — were in trouble. The pandemic reduced demand for office and retail space. Tenants of other council properties weren't paying rents, but expenses kept piling up.

"Everybody went into 'bail out Herbie' mode," Perez said.

Misuse of federal money

The financial issues then became public. Independent auditors flagged the council's mishandling of $1.8 million of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds. The council had misused the funds in 2021 and 2022 to support the nonprofit.

It is unclear whether the council faces sanctions for that misappropriation. When The Republican asked the Attorney General's Office for communication in the last several years between it and Flores or the council, one document was withheld because it was related to an open investigation. An AG's office spokesperson could not confirm or deny if Flores or the council are under investigation.

Bennett, however, said there are no further investigations into the LIHEAP matter. The LIHEAP repayment by the council is now complete, according to mortgage paperwork reviewed by The Republican.

In 2023, the council signed a mortgage with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, and it has been selling off its real estate portfolio — including the Paramount Theater — to repay the LIHEAP money.

Also mortgaged were other properties Flores and the farm workers group had amassed in Springfield. This includes 1618 Main St. where The Student Prince Cafe and The Fort Restaurant are located. The Fort's owners bought the real estate.

Parent Villages bought 32 Hampden St., another downtown landmark that the council had mortgaged. Other buildings were in Holyoke and Bridgeport, Connecticut.

When city officials learned the Paramount would be sold, they decided to not move forward with a $3.6 million loan Springfield was facilitating through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program.

Early last year, as the council looked to sell the theater property, the city wrote to HUD asking that the loan plans be dropped. "Unfortunately, due to a number of project delays, we hereby request deobligation of this commitment," reads a letter from the city's chief development officer, Timothy Sheehan.

The loan wasn't finalized "because there was no party on the borrower's side that could produce the necessary financial security to successfully complete the loan underwriting by the City and HUD," Sheehan told The Republican in an email.

Proceeds from the sale of the council real estate also went to pay off several million in mortgages, including a $1.4 million mortgage on the Paramount itself. The property later sold to Sachdev for $750,000, about half the amount of that mortgage.

Developer plans sequel for Paramount

Now, the new owner with a background in real estate and experience with a historic movie theater is shaping his own plans for a rehabilitation.

The building is not ready for redevelopment by a long shot, Sachdev said. He and his family rehabbed a historic theater, the Plaza Theater and its attached storefronts on Broad Street in Windsor, Connecticut.

The roof is failing, Sachdev said in recent text messages. Chris Hill, the architect working for Sachdev, says the project appears to have been abandoned. Hill said Sachdev had workers climb up to the roof soon after he bought the building.

"A lot of the roof was just left," Hill told the Community Preservation Committee in April, as part of a presentation asking for money. "There was a roofing membrane that was just flapping. It was never finished. It was left open."

Gaping holes are widening and water has been pulling elaborate plaster from its lath. "You can literally see daylight now," Hill told the committee. "It's really heartbreaking to see where it is."

Barrett, the roofing contractor, examined the Paramount a few months ago at Sachdev's request and described what he discovered in an interview with The Republican.

"The courtyards are a mess. Horrible, horrible shape," he said.

He said roofing was not properly secured or flashed properly to prevent leakage. Work along parapet walls was not completed.

The scene was unlike anything he's witnessed in decades of working on roofs. Equipment and supplies were left behind, he said.

Barrett found buckets of abandoned, unused fasteners on the roof. "Why would you throw away buckets of stuff that's so expensive?" he asked. "It was really bizarre."

Commercial roofs are typically inspected by the manufacturers, he said. Those companies need to sign off on workmanship before they'll issue a warranty. The Paramount wouldn't have passed, he said.

"That was a job that was completely abandoned," Barrett said.

"We wish the new owner the best of luck," O'Donovan, president of the company that worked on the project for the council, said in a statement. "Hopefully he can secure the funding and operators to move this project forward as the Farm Workers Council could not."

Money questions remain

Sachdev says he'll start work on the roof once he gets $300,000 in Community Preservation Act funds approved by the local preservation commission in May.

As of early September, he was still waiting on the money. The Community Preservation Committee needs paperwork from Sachdev to complete the grant, according to a city official.

More state funding is possible. Gomez, the state senator, says he's willing to put in another state earmark if the new owner comes to him with a viable plan. He recalled his mother taking him to see a holiday performance of "The Nutcracker" as a child.

Gomez has long complained about the lack of investment and attention on Main Street north of Worthington Street. Projects at the other end of Main Street, like the Clock Tower Building and a nearby parking deck, grab attention.

"A lot of that money went to the South End," he said.

Panjabi Tadka, an Indian restaurant, is the sole tenant of the Main Street building, which has long been its home.

The restaurant is not affected by the leaking roof, said co-owner Malkit Singh. But he still wants to see a re-development project come to fruition.

When the Paramount operated as a theater years ago, it boosted business. That dropped off when the Hippodrome opened as a club, Singh said. "It would make a huge difference if they bring the theater back."

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