Signs of investment downtown?

STAY A WHILE: A rendering of The Procaccianti Group’s proposed extended stay hotel, which would sit on the site that currently houses the vacant Fogarty Building. / COURTESY THE PROCACCIANTI GROUP
STAY A WHILE: A rendering of The Procaccianti Group’s proposed extended stay hotel, which would sit on the site that currently houses the vacant Fogarty Building. / COURTESY THE PROCACCIANTI GROUP

With all eyes on underutilized real estate in the Knowledge District, another downtown Providence neighborhood is showing signs of life and development potential.
The blocks around LaSalle Square and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center – where grand construction plans a decade ago went unrealized – are again attracting investment.
The Procaccianti Group and Regency Plaza have recently taken the first steps toward large building projects on Fountain Street and Broadway, respectively.
Procaccianti intends to build a 170-room, extended-stay hotel at 111-133 Fountain St. on the site of the vacant John E. Fogarty Building.
A few blocks away, the owners of the Regency Plaza Apartments want to add a fourth building with 134 rental units to the Broadway side of their 5.9-acre complex. Regency already had invested $14.5 million to update the existing three buildings between 2007 and 2011.
Both projects are in the theoretical stages and need to clear permitting hurdles, but are the most recent signals that the real estate market in that corner of town is heating up.
Just last year, a local group completed the conversion of the former Sportsman’s Inn strip club into the trendy Dean Hotel on Fountain Street across from the Fogarty site.
And in December 2012, Hasbro opened offices in a refurbished 15 LaSalle Square.
“It is an excellent location,” said Mike Giuttari, president of MG Commercial Real Estate in Providence. “It seems out of the way for some people, but it sees a lot of people coming through from outside the city and outside Rhode Island. And of course you get all the activity at the [Dunkin’ Donuts Center] and [R.I. Convention Center].”
Like most of downtown Providence, even with new projects planned, there are still plenty of parking lots and underutilized parcels around LaSalle Square that could host additional development.
Perhaps the most significant is the former Providence police and fire station lot, also owned by Procaccianti, next door to Regency Plaza and across the street from the Hasbro offices.
In 2005, Procaccianti bought the old police station and Fogarty Building from the Providence Redevelopment Agency, which had previously awarded the development rights for both properties to Vincent J. Mesolella Jr.
Mesollela had intended to build a 250-room hotel on the Fogarty property and at various points a hotel, condominiums and office space on the police-station property, but none of those projects came to fruition. When Procaccianti took over, the company announced plans to build an office building with street-level stores where the police station stood as part of a “power block,” including its hotels across the street (now the Hilton Providence) and at the Westin (now the Omni Providence Hotel) on the other side of the Convention Center.
When the old police station did come down, the lot was paved for parking and has remained that way since.
On the other side of Broadway opposite the Hilton Providence is another surface parking lot.
Providence Economic Development Director James Bennett said in a meeting he had with Procaccianti last week over the Fogarty building, both the police station lot and Hilton lot, site of a former Gulf gas station, were briefly discussed.
Bennett said a supermarket with housing above it has been discussed for the former gas station lot, but nothing is ready to go yet.
Regarding questions about the police-station property, Procaccianti spokesman Ralph Izzi said in an email only that the firm is “currently exploring re-development scenarios, however we’re unable to disclose details at this time.”At the Fogarty Building, Procaccianti needs approval from the DownCity Design Review Committee to tear down the existing structure and for the design of the extended-stay hotel building that would replace it. The company has yet to file any formal applications with the city.
Izzi said Procaccianti hopes to complete permitting by the end of this year and have a groundbreaking ceremony for the hotel sometime in 2015.
Built in the Brutalist style for use as government offices, the 1968 Fogarty Building has been derided by some as one of the ugliest in the city, although many argue its mid-century modern style is only now being appreciated.
Brent Runyon, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, which fought the demolition of the police station, said his organization has yet to take a position on the Fogarty Building without a formal application or more specifics from Procaccianti.
Procaccianti applied to tear down the Fogarty building in 2011, but was stopped by a recent rule requiring owners seeking a demolition permit for a downtown property to get a building permit for its replacement first. Bennett said the city is negotiating a tax-stabilization agreement with Procaccianti for the Fogarty and a building permit for the hotel will be required before the old building can come down.
The half-acre Fogarty property is currently assessed at $2.4 million, a value that would likely drop, along with the tax burden and maintenance costs, if it were an empty lot.
Giuttari, who has shown the Fogarty to potential tenants over the years, said the extended-stay hotel plan is much smaller and simpler than what Procaccianti would have built at the former police-station lot, making it less likely it sits post-demolition.
“The police station is a much bigger project and mixed use, while the [hotel] is very specific, simple, and they know how to do those,” Giuttari said. “The police-station property is something that will happen only when the market really turns around.”
Concerns about demolition aren’t an issue for Regency Plaza, which won’t need to tear anything down to add a new five-to-six-story apartment building.
The complex’s owners are, however, seeking to purchase a 6,711-square-foot slice of Broadway to fit in the new building and associated private parking, according to the City Plan Commission.
The piece of road they are eyeing, stretching the length of the block between Dave Gavitt Way and Greene Street, now provides seven public parking spaces and a right-turn lane for cars coming off Interstate 95 North into downtown.
The City Plan Commission in June recommended approval of the proposal, which it said would improve overall traffic flow despite slowing right-turning cars, and make the intersection much safer for pedestrians. Currently walkers have to cross the turn lane to a small island before traversing to the other side of Broadway or to the highway overpass to Federal Hill.
If the city agrees to abandon the piece of Broadway, Regency would have to pay compensation for the value of the land based on independent appraisal.
The City Plan Commission’s recommendation included a condition that the Department of Public Works “explore the feasibility” of installing a bike lane on that stretch of Broadway. •

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