It was years in the making, but developers are now poised to build a new Marriott Courtyard in downtown Providence, providing 216 rooms that officials say the city desperately needs.
Last Monday, city and state officials gathered at Union Station Plaza for a groundbreaking ceremony for the $25 million project, which will include a seven-story hotel, a three-level parking garage, and an 11,000 square-foot pedestrian plaza.
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The hotel will open in 16 months, said Ron Marsella, who will develop the property along with partners Arthur Robbins and John Macliver.
For Marsella, the idea to develop the area was born during an August 1978 meeting with Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. Now, 20 years later, the project is coming to fruition. It is part of a 12-year effort to improve the Union Station Complex, he said.
“It’s been a long, long period of time as I look back over the period of 20 years that brought us to this date,” Marsella told about 70 people who gathered in the parking lot outside The Capital Grille and The Union Station Brewery for the ceremony.
Demand for hotel space has grown since then. Additional rooms are needed for the city to attract large conventions to the Rhode Island Convention Center, officials say. The new Marriott is one of four new hotels the city is planning to build, including one to be built where the Providence Police Department is now.
The development will be 235,000 square feet and will include a parking garage that can hold 370 vehicles. The garage is expected to be completed in November of next year, while the hotel will be finished in April of 2000. Officials at the groundbreaking noted that it will be a central link between Providence Place Mall, Union Plaza, and the recently-opened Fleet Skating Center.
Cianci characterized the various improvements as a sign that the city is beginning to reach the potential it has had for some time.
“We had the self-esteem, and we had the resources, but no one believed it,” the mayor said. “And now we’re in the believing mode.”
