The town council voted Wednesday night in a special meeting to accept $4.5 million from the owners of Westfarms mall to settle a lawsuit filed by the town in 2007 seeking damangs for the delayed opening of Blue Back Square.

The opening of the multi-use complex in West Hartford Center was delayed a year because of a large number of lawsuits and administrative appeals filed by Taubman Centers Inc., the parent company of Westfarms mall and one of the largest mall developers in the nation. Taubman is the majority owner; there are four other partners.

Once the town council and zoning authorities approved Blue Back Square in the summer of 2004, Taubman moved to halt the project by filing lawsuits against the developers, the town and Mayor R. Scott Slifka as an individual; funding groups opposing the project; and trying to block the project as it went before other bodies including the state historic commission and the federal highway commission.

The project was to have taken 24 months to complete, originally scheduled to open by the fall of 2006. It didn’t open until late 2007. In that year, the economy began to decline and the real estate bubble began to burst. The delay cost the town in parking fees, tax income and other revenue.

Once the lawsuits and administrative actions were settled, the developers and the town each filed counter suits to recoup their financial losses incurred defending themselves and in lost revenue. Developers settled in December for $34 million.

The settlement ends more than five years of legal actions.