MAYOR PEREZ REQUESTS THAT

 MEMORY OF WILLIE PEP BE HONORED

 AT NEW FRONT STREET PROJECT

 

---NEWS RELEASE---

 

(December 11, 2006)--- Mayor Eddie A. Perez has respectfully requested that part of the new Front Street Development in Downtown Hartford pay tribute to local boxing great Willie Pep.  The former featherweight champ recently passed, but Mayor Perez believes Pep’s contribution to the sport and to Hartford should be immortalized.

 

In a letter to Bill McCue, Chairman of the Capital City Economic Development Authority, and Brad Nitkin, President and CEO of the HB Nitkin Group, Mayor Perez proposes the addition of a park to this retail and residential project.  (Please see attachment).

 

Mayor Perez says, “While the project continues to move forward, the addition of a modest park space to honor Willie Pep would not only benefit the project aesthetically, but it would also be an added destination to attract boxing fans and all of those that Willie Pep’s life touched to visit the area.”

 

Mayor Perez goes on to say that Willie Pep is a boxing icon and “… has been an inspiration to Hartford residents for decades and is very much apart of the history of the city.”