By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — Another developer has matched the bid price of $1.1 million that Lisa Baldelli-Hunt was offering for Gaston A. Ayotte Little League Field before the deal went down in flames last month, officials said Monday.

The latest offer comes from Richard Baccari of Churchill & Banks Companies, said Planning Director Joel D. Mathews.
The administration issued a new request for proposals on June 11, the day after Baldelli-Hunt, a state lawmaker who represents the city, unexpectedly withdrew her controversial bid on the floor of a City Council meeting.
Mathews said Baccari’s was the only offer the city received in response to the new solicitation.
In addition to advertising the request for proposals in newspapers, the planning director said the city directly invited a number of  “interested parties” to bid, including commercial real estate agents and the “three major pharmacy chains” in Rhode Island — presumably CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid.
Mathews said he expected the effort to drum up more interest, but still, he was not displeased with the result.
“I think $1.1 million is a very good number,” said Mathews. “This is not a prime, boom real estate market we’re seeing out there, so I think it’s a very good price.”
Mathews said the price would set the cost per square foot for the parcel at $12, a city record for commercial real estate and nearly three times as much as the appraised worth of a retail plaza adjacent to Ayotte Field.
Located at the high-traffic, four-corner junction of Providence Street and Smithfield Road, the 2-acre Little League field is “prime commercial real estate,” Mathews said.
Baccari wants to erect approximately 20,000 square feet of retail space on the parcel, but Mathews said he does not know whether Baccari has any specific tenants in mind.
Like Baldelli-Hunt’s offer, the $1.1 million sticker on Baccari’s includes $400,000 for the development of a new Little League field near the corner of Park Avenue and Smithfield Road. Mathews said the city-owned parcel abuts Barry Field, where the Woonsocket High School Villa Novans play football.
Mathews said Mayor Susan D. Menard wants the City Council to sign a memorandum of understanding with the School Committee acknowledging that the School Department and the Bernon District Little League would share the use of the field. Under the arrangement, the School Department would be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the new baseball diamond, as it is for Barry Field, said Mathews.
The mayor’s administration will recommend that the City Council accept Baccari’s offer and approve the memorandum at its next meeting, on July 17, said Mathews. If the offer is accepted, Baccari would give the city a $40,000 deposit on Ayotte Field, giving both sides 90 days to execute a formal purchase and sales agreement. Baccari would have up to six months more to determine whether he can obtain all the necessary permits to execute his plans at the site before closing.
Baccari is a well-known developer responsible for numerous residential and commercial building projects in the state, including the retail plaza on Diamond Hill Road where, until recently, a Starbucks café was located.
The sale of the field is part of Menard’s plan for raising revenue to finance operations for the cash-strapped city in fiscal year 2009, which begins today.
 Despite the need for the revenue, the City Council had initially given the Baldelli-Hunt bid a chilly reception. Among other things, the council questioned whether the administration had advertised the sale of the field widely enough to guarantee a good price from prospective bidders. The City Council seemed poised to nix the proposal until an impassioned, 11th hour plea from Baldelli-Hunt in which she accused members of orchestrating a politically-motivated campaign to sabotage Menard’s budget by killing the deal.
Baldelli-Hunt’s last-minute flourish appeared to have saved the deal — until it came before the council for second and final passage on June 10. Then, it was Baldelli-Hunt herself who unexpectedly pulled the plug, telling councilors she was fed up with talk-radio gossip suggesting she was getting a sweetheart deal because of her political connections.
A Democrat who represents House District 49 in Woonsocket, Baldelli-Hunt is the niece of former Mayor Charles Baldelli and recently announced her plans to run for a second term as state representative.