Construction cranes are sweeping the downtown sky once again, building hotels, apartments, office buildings and a nascent life-sciences hub.
Paul Edward Parker Journal Staff Writer projopaul
South Street Landing
In the late 1990s an audacious plan was announced to turn the former South Street Power Station into a multicultural museum called Heritage Harbor near the corner of Eddy and Point streets.
Narragansett Electric donated the old power plant property, then valued at $10 million, to the nonprofit museum corporation. Businesses and foundations lined up to donate millions to the project.
Then nothing happened.
The project was resurrected about a decade ago when Baltimore developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse stepped in and bought the property. The project, now called Dynamo House, would include a scaled-down Heritage Harbor, plus a hotel and office space.
Then nothing happened.
In 2013, CV Properties took over and dubbed the project South Street Landing. The former power plant would become home to a nursing education center and some administrative offices for Brown University. A parking garage and apartment buildings would be built on adjacent land along the Providence River.
State, city and business leaders expressed hope that the project would serve as a catalyst for more development.
Then something happened.
Today, the nursing center for the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College is open. The garage is built. Two seven-story buildings with 174 units of student housing are under construction.
And even more development is underway throughout downtown.
Edge College Hill
Perhaps the most noticeable crane in Providence’s sky is perched at the foot of College Hill, tending to what many have called the “big blue cube,” after the color of the sheathing on the steel skeleton of a 15-story apartment tower at 169 Canal St.
The developer, Vision Properties, celebrated the topping-off — completion of the highest reach of the steel structure — on March 21, the first full day of spring.
More than 200 apartments aimed at the student rental market are planned to be available Sept. 1 with rents in the $1,575 to $2,000 range. The building is also expected to have ground-floor retail.
Vision Properties plans a second 15-story tower at 131 Canal St.
The Commons at Providence Station
The first project being built with RebuildRI state tax credits, this 169-unit apartment building is nestled into a 2.85-acre lot on the west bank of the Moshassuck River at 80 Smith St., near the Capitol Cove building, the State House and the train station.
Developers Trilogy Development LLC, of Providence, and John M. Corcoran & Co. LLC, of Braintree, Massachusetts, broke ground in December 2016.
The $55-million project will benefit from $5.6 million in RebuildRI credits as well as a 15-year tax treaty with the city, valued at $4.5 million.
It is expected to be completed this summer.
Providence River Pedestrian Bridge
A 450-foot steel span with wood decking will connect two planned parks on either side of the Providence River.
The parks will be built on land occupied by Route 195 before its relocation. The bridge is being built on the supports that held the former highway.
The $21.8-million project began with a groundbreaking in the fall of 2016 and is expected to be finished in the summer of 2019, though the bridge may be opened for limited use before then, according to Charles St. Martin, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, which is building the bridge.
The 15- to 60-foot-wide bridge is being built in halves that will meet in the middle. The steel structure for the west side of the bridge is complete and work on the east half is expected to begin in the next few weeks.
Homewood Suites Extended Stay Hotel
The triangle of land facing Burnside Park next to the Post Office building in downtown has an interesting geological history, at least in recent times.
When engineers bored holes in the ground to see whether it would support an eight-story, 120-room hotel, they found a mishmash of soil, rocks, debris from previous construction and pockets of air. Before starting on the hotel, developer First Bristol Corp. had to compact the ground.
Construction is underway on the $18-million to $20-million hotel, which will be part of the Hilton chain.
78 Fountain St.
On the big parking lot fronted by the tiny building where Coffee King used to be, Cornish Associates has proposed a six-story apartment building with retail on the ground floor.
It would be built on the space bordered by Fountain, Washington, Mathewson and Clemence Streets.
The project, which would have 141 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail, has received approval from the city.
Arnold B. “Buff” Chace Jr., founder and managing partner of Cornish, said he is lining up construction financing and hopes work will begin this year.
Chestnut Commons
Proposed in 2016, Chestnut Commons would be a 116,000-square-foot development mixing “streetscape retail” with 89 housing units, 30 covered parking spots, 5,000 square feet of landscaped open space and 6,000 square feet of retail.
The five-story project has received city approval and has been estimated at $27 million by developer Waldorf Capital Management LLC.
Pedestrian walkways around and through the Commons would connect Chestnut, Clifford and Claverick Streets.
Wexford Science and Technology
In late March, crews celebrated the topping off — the placement of the highest piece of structural steel in a building — of the Wexford Science & Technology innovation center at 195 Richmond St., land in the former Route 195 corridor.
The nearly 195,000-square-foot building, expected to open in March or April of next year, will house several technology tenants, including the Cambridge Innovation Center. It is seen as a key piece of Rhode Island’s bid to develop a life-sciences economy.
Hope Point Tower
New York developer Jason Fane has proposed a 46-story, 600-foot-tall residential tower on former Route 195 land at Dyer and Dorrance streets.
The single-tower proposal is a revamp of a plan to build three towers at the site, each a different height, with the tallest being just over 600 feet.
The City Plan Commission held a public hearing last month but delayed a decision until its May 15 meeting. The commission must make a recommendation to the City Council on whether the building should be allowed in a part of the city zoned for buildings with a maximum height of 100 feet.
Renderings show the tower atop a six-story podium, which would include ground-floor retail space and parking. The project would be adjacent to the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge now under construction. (See No. 10)
Residence Inn by Marriott
This extended-stay hotel in the Marriott chain is expected to open by the end of next year. It would include 168 guest rooms and 5,400 square feet of retail space, including a bistro facing the intersection of Fountain and Mathewson streets.
The project is being developed by the Procaccianti Group, which last week was nearing the end of work on the building’s foundation. The hotel will be the second-closest to the Rhode Island Convention Center, after the Omni Providence, which adjoins the convention center.
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