Carpionato pitches 18-building Tiverton complex

CROSSROADS: A rendering of the layout of Tiverton Crossings, Carpionato’s  proposed 18-building mixed-use development on 66 acres in Tiverton. / COURTESY CARPIONATO GROUP
CROSSROADS: A rendering of the layout of Tiverton Crossings, Carpionato’s proposed 18-building mixed-use development on 66 acres in Tiverton. / COURTESY CARPIONATO GROUP

The woodlands and scattered single-family subdivisions of Tiverton don’t cry out for large-scale development, but Carpionato Group envisions one of the largest mixed-use projects in Rhode Island on 66 acres off of Main Road.
For the Johnston-based developer, the area itself is only part of the site’s attractiveness. Even more important is the highway that runs through the town.
“Because of Route 24, this is not just Tiverton; this is Aquidneck Island, Bristol, Little Compton, Westport and Fall River,” said Joe Pierik, Carpionato director of New England territory retail leasing and acquisitions. “Today retailers look at sites not just in terms of population radius, but in terms of drive time. We see a great opportunity.”
On a rectangular site between the highway and Souza Road that developers have eyed for the last 15 years, Carpionato is proposing an 18-building complex with a hotel, apartments, restaurants, 150,000 square feet of offices and 385,000 square feet of shops.
In appearance and target market, the project, known as Tiverton Crossings, resembles Carpionato’s flagship development, the Chapel View complex in Cranston.
And as with nearly every large commercial development, Tiverton Crossings, estimated to cost $100 million to build, faces formidable local permitting hurdles.
To build, Carpionato needs a zoning change, as mixed-use development is currently not allowed in the town, as well as approval under the state’s major land-development process. Even if all goes well, permitting will likely stretch well into next year.
Among the issues the developer will have to address in permitting are likely to be methods for handling increased traffic and the precedent the zoning change would establish for other town properties. Coates said Carpionato will follow the R.I. Department of Transportation’s recommendations for mitigating new car trips and build necessary “traffic improvements” such as stoplights or extra road lanes.
To offset concerns about congestion or sprawl, Carpionato describes Tiverton Crossings as a way for the Ocean State to reclaim some of the retail sales, and sales tax revenue, lost to Massachusetts shopping strips just over the border in Seekonk, the Attleboros and Fall River.
“There is a huge loss of tax dollars for Rhode Island into Massachusetts,” said Carpionato Senior Vice President Kelly Coates.
In addition to the sales tax benefits, Carpionato estimates that Tiverton Crossings will generate at least $1.6 million in annual property taxes for the town, plus 350 full-time construction jobs.
Tiverton Town Administrator James C. Goncalo said commercial development is “crucial” to expanding the local tax base and that Tiverton Crossings is the largest and most timely example.
“It is the top opportunity but not the only area in town,” Goncalo said. “We have over 100 acres in the industrial park we are trying to develop and other parcels owned by private organizations we are hoping to develop.”
A Middletown resident who works in Boston, Pierik said he was drawn to the Tiverton property as a result of driving by it every day on Route 24.
Earlier plans by another firm to develop the site with the entrance on Souza Road, instead of Main Road, had been entirely retail and fell apart when the real estate market collapsed.
Carpionato decided to make the project mixed use in the popular suburban “lifestyle center” style used at Chapel View and other centers like South County Commons in South Kingstown. As large as Tiverton Crossings is compared with other developments in the town’s history, it may have a better chance of being built than Carpionato’s other major proposal, a $250 million plan to develop the former Interstate 195 lands on Providence’s East Side.
That project must contend with complex urban engineering and design challenges, along with the competition of other developers for the approval of an ad-hoc state board.
With the extensive permitting and rezoning process just started, Coates said the goal would be to start construction of Tiverton Crossings sometime next year, with about a year of construction.
Carpionato isn’t the only developer active in the neighborhood.
Kitty corner to the Tiverton Crossings site on the west side of Main Road, a joint venture backed by Starwood Capital Group is completing The Villages on Mount Hope Bay senior condominium complex.
Started in 2004, the 55-and-over development stalled in the recession with 164 of 229 planned units completed.
Now Starwood has brought in East Providence developer Peregrine Group and Providence architects Union Studio to redesign and finish the remaining 66 duplex units.
The new units will be of similar size to the existing units, of which only three are unsold, but updated with contemporary finishes and more space allocated to living areas instead of the giant master bedrooms that were a trademark of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Kane said the new buildings will be marketed in September, with construction beginning in October and completed hopefully by next spring.
Asking prices will be around $650,000 to $700,000. •

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