A real estate company co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) was awarded a nearly $2 billion, 40-year state courthouse contract in Massachusetts, and competing bidders are now challenging the deal in court over alleged conflicts of interest.
The Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance announced July 2 that it had selected Liberty Junction for both a $600 million construction contract and a 40-year lease worth nearly $2 billion to rebuild the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in Springfield. Liberty Junction’s partners include CoJo Partners, a Boston-based real estate firm co-owned by Conan Harris, Pressley’s husband, and John Barros.
Two losing bidders, USPB JV, LLC and Tower Square, LLC, filed a legal complaint July 9 in Hampden Superior Court calling the decision “rife with conflicts of interest.” The suit centers on Barros, who became interim executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority on Jan. 14, 2026. Several MCCA board members also serve on DCAMM, the state agency that awarded the contract.
Plaintiffs allege Barros disclosed his conflict of interest to the State Ethics Commission just one day before the contract was awarded. The Liberty Junction proposal was also not updated to reflect his leadership role at MCCA.
“This decision undermines the integrity of the public procurement process by awarding the contract to a company whose principals, John Barros and Conan Harris, have deep conflicts,” the complaint states.
Pressley was not accused of any wrongdoing, and no evidence has emerged that she was involved in the bidding process.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a fiscal watchdog group, called on Gov. Maura Healey to freeze the contract pending a full review.
“When Massachusetts taxpayers are being asked to commit nearly $2 billion over 40 years to a privately owned courthouse, there cannot be even a hint that political connections or conflicts of interest influenced the process,” MassFiscal Executive Director Paul Diego Craney told the Boston Herald. “Is it too much to ask that contract winners not be married to a Massachusetts member of Congress?”
Healey’s office defended the process this week, saying the bid was competitive and resulted in the lowest cost to taxpayers.
“This was a competitive procurement process. It was a competitive bid, and the project that was chosen was the one that cost the taxpayers the least,” Healey told WWLP-TV on Wednesday.
DCAMM, in a statement, said “all applicable procurement requirements were followed.”
The bidding process formally launched June 30, 2025, with the contract announced on July 2, 2026, the last business day before the Independence Day weekend.
