R.I. colleges partner on Dynamo redevelopment

PROVIDENCE – The University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Brown University are pursuing a joint mixed-use redevelopment of the former South Street Power Station that would include an advanced nursing school, administrative offices, classrooms and student apartments, Brown announced last week.
The three schools are partnering with Connecticut-based developer Commonwealth Venture Properties LLC on the project, estimated to cost $206 million, according to Brown.
Also known as the Dynamo House, the old brick power station on the Providence River has been vacant since 1999 and exposed to the elements since plans by a Baltimore developer to turn it into a history museum and hotel collapsed in 2008.
Under the concept announced last week, Brown would lease around 120,000 square feet of the building for academic and administrative space.
URI and RIC would lease a roughly similar portion of the building for an advanced nursing school that has been a priority of URI President David Dooley as well as state officials and business leaders for years.
The plans also include a 150,000-square-foot apartment building for 296 medical and nursing students next to the former power station. •

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