Negotiations between Crew SC and the city of Columbus for a new downtown stadium and surrounding mixed-use project were dragging behind schedule, city costs were close to double what the leaders had publicly pledged and at least one city administrator was voicing concern over what the public was being asked to fund.

It was against this backdrop that on March 4 the Crew decided it needed a lobbyist: former Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

"This deal was extremely complex, so when you're out in the weeds, you want to have as many friends with you as you can because you don't know what you're going to find," Dr. Pete Edwards, now a part-owner of the Crew, said about hiring Coleman.

Details on what Coleman was paid and what he accomplished are not available. But it's clear that he entered the fray late in the game, three months after a public-private deal to build the stadium was struck, and just as emails show growing city costs were beginning to become an internal topic.

By May, the city's commitment to contribute $50 million for work related to the new stadium and renovation of the Crew's current home, Mapfre Stadium, had doubled for infrastructure work to support the stadium and proposed development around it. And costs for development in what is being called "Confluence Village" would continue to grow.

At the groundbreaking last week for the 20,000-seat stadium, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said the city would spend $113.9 million, which includes what he called “additional funds for infrastructure for this incredible new jobs center.”

He said it would be worth the money to leverage what the city estimates will be $1.04 billion in private investment to the Arena District over the next 20 years, including over $300 million the Crew owners plan to spend on the stadium project.

"We needed his expertise," Peter John-Baptiste, a spokesman for Haslam Sports Group, now the majority owner of the Crew, said of hiring Coleman. "I think it's really just a matter of, again, having a good understanding of the (Columbus) market."

"It's really just involving people that know the city, and involving as many people in the process as possible," Edwards said. "That's just the way Columbus does it. It's the Columbus Way."

Four weeks after hiring Coleman, the Crew beefed up its representation again, hiring former City Council President John P. Kennedy on April 1 as a second lobbyist. Kennedy is a senior adviser to Ginther's mayoral campaign and served on his 2015 transition team.

"We're new to the area," John-Baptiste said. "These guys are experts to this area."

Why hire Coleman? He is the city's longest-serving former mayor, with longstanding political ties to both Ginther and City Council President Shannon Hardin. Coleman endorsed Ginther to replace him weeks after announcing his retirement from office in 2014, and Hardin had been hired by Coleman after college.

In fact, many of the key city administrators negotiating the Crew stadium project formerly had worked for Coleman when he was mayor, including Steve Schoeny, the development director who left the city recently for another job, and Greg Davies, a deputy chief of staff to Ginther. Some work in a new city administration building that bears Coleman's name.

Ginther, through his spokeswoman, declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. Coleman didn't return messages left with his office seeking comment, and Kennedy couldn't be reached. Schoeny did not return a message seeking comment.

While city officials say the added costs are unrelated to the stadium, most of them are assigned to the city in a draft development contract with the team, which will develop land around the stadium into retail, offices and apartments as a city incentive.

The additional projects, which the city considers a westward extension of the Arena District, include a $25 million parking garage 60 feet from the stadium, the burying of high-voltage power lines, moving a cellphone tower, relocating a sewer, building a pedestrian bridge and park and upgrading nearby intersections. The new figure apparently doesn't include the value of donated city land and reimbursing the former owner for previous tax-increment-finance expenditures.

The lobbyists were involved in negotiations, records show.

"I began crafting some language last night that Mayor Coleman wanted to review first," Damita Brown, Ginther's interim chief diversity officer, wrote in an April email. "I'll send to him shortly and try to connect with him to get his initial feedback."

"It probably makes sense to get Coleman and Kennedy on the line as well?" former Recreation Director Tony Collins asked Crew and Cleveland Browns general counsel Ted Tywang in a May email on a different topic, to set up a conference call on project schedules.

"Yes, that make sense," Tywang responded. "Coleman previewed the discussion."

Asked whether Coleman should have been involved since key negotiators formerly worked for him, Ginther spokeswoman Robin Davis said: "The interactions the city had with Mr. Coleman and Mr. Kennedy were focused on community engagement, ensuring the Crew’s commitment to historic minority participation and working to meet very aggressive timelines. Their engagement was not in any way unusual or improper."

In November, Coleman and Kennedy also had been retained as lobbyists on the Crew project for the Columbus Partnership, a group of Columbus business leaders, according to city lobbying disclosures.

On Monday, Ginther announced that Davies, Coleman's former chief of staff, was leaving Ginther's office to become vice president of planning and development with the Columbus Partnership.

Coleman was a mentor to Hardin, who served as a city community affairs liaison after graduating from college in 2009. Coleman lobbied for his appointment to the city council in 2014.

Hardin also declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.

"Mayor Coleman was an advocate to the City for Crew Stadium," Michael S. Brown, the city council's chief of staff, said in an email. "He was helpful in taking President Hardin’s desire for more local minority companies and workers to be hired in projects."

In December, the city council authorized Ginther to negotiate a Crew deal using $50 million as a city contribution.

Asked when the city council first became aware of the new $113.9 million total Confluence Village price tag, Brown responded: "That is the latest estimate for various district projects; some are still being planned for the announced developments, and prices are not final (until) after it goes to bid. Council acts on project ordinances after bids. We do not interfere or negotiate interim steps."

bbush@dispatch.com

@ReporterBush