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ROCKVILLE, CT – Ken Kaplan’s hope back in the fall of 2014 was to have his grandiose New England Motorcycle Museum opened by Labor 
Day 2015. His dream was to restore the derelict Hockanum Mill into a show place for motorcycles that would eclipse the world-renown Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, AL.
Today, five months after the targeted opening date, work has stalled. “We are officially out of money and the construction staff has been laid off today and forward production has ground to a crawl,” Kaplan wrote in an email Thursday to state and local officials and to museum supporters.
That background was included in an email plea for money sent out by Kaplan late Saturday night to nearly 40 people. An attachment revealed that Kaplan needs a loan of $622,000 to finish the first phase of the project. The state has already provided $4 million in Department of Economic and Community Development loans, Kaplan has added more than $900,000 and Rockville has contributed $75,000.
“I look forward to seeing each of you at the grand opening of the best thing in Rockville since the 1800’s!” Kaplan wrote optimistically in the email. “Whoever loans us the money to finish will have more money (in 12 months) and a special plaque on the entry designating them as a Sponsor of the New England Motorcycle Museum! You can’t go wrong, so step up and let’s get this game changing project completed!”
Ken Kaplan
In the email thread that revealed the construction shutdown, Kaplan cited “many challenges, delays and cost overruns caused by issues that existed or were caused long before we were born” as the reasons why the project hasn’t yet come to fruition. “Unforeseen cost overruns due to stringent historical, environmental and engineering requirements have requi(r)ed us to seek additional funding,” he explained in a funding appeal attachment.
Kaplan describes the needed $622,000 as “a short-term bridge-gap loan” that will allow phase one of the project to be finished and a certificate of occupancy to be obtained. That will enable the museum to receive historic tax credits of $750,000.
“When we receive the tax credits, we will pay back in full the loan within 18-24 months (possibly sooner) with an interest rate to be determined. We will put up as collateral title to building 4 which has $650,000.00 invested (Museum & Kaplan Cycles) and building three which has $4,350,000.00 invested (Motorcycle Repair / Storage / Restaurant / Bar / Microbrewery), and the $750,000.00 tax credit for collateral. You will have more than $5,750,000.00 of value for collateral on a $622,000 loan…,” the loan appeal attachment noted.
Hello Bud, This is Ken Kaplan, Thank you for writing the article on our Mill Restoration and Motorcycle Museum project. I would like to clarify a few things:
1) The budget of $5,000,000 for the 50,000 square foot of phase one has not changed from our original estimate of $100. P.S.F. We have had some budget challenges but will not exceed the original estimate more than 10%, typical construction projects such as these have a 20% factor for unforeseen “conditions”. We actually need $280,000 to complete the project, the rest is owed to vendors for work completed and a 20% factor for Conditions unknown.
2) It is true our goal is to exceed the World Renown Barber Museum’s total of a 600 bike display, which we will eventually, but to compare our 200 year old facility to their “state of the art building” which is a much larger, and grandiose museum than ours, is comparing a different type of project; Our building itself is a 200 year old museum listed on the National and State Parks Offices as a historic site, theirs is a new building more like a mall, and probably cost more than ten times what our project investment will be!
3) It is our goal to finish the project and open the facility this year, and are working towards securing the funding to finish and getting the required regulatory compliance’s secured.