D’Ambra gets board OK for Warwick complex

Michael D’Ambra Sr. looks across his dusty, dirt parking lot and construction storage facilities in Warwick and envisions four office towers reaching seven stories into the air and passengers disembarking trains on their way into work. The planned office, hotel and retail complex, with a 2,000-spot parking garage next to the intermodal facility now under construction near T.F. Green Airport, would be a “showpiece” for the city, D’Ambra says.
Last week D’Ambra received Planning Board approval for the project on Jefferson Boulevard that could cost between $250 million and $500 million and include tearing down the current headquarters of D’Ambra Construction. But D’Ambra has no immediate plans to start construction, which would occur in stages, with each tower built one at a time. He still needs final city approval for the project’s design. Once he gets that, then D’Ambra wants to secure at least half the tenants for the first office tower before putting shovels in the ground. That way, when the economy turns around he can trim the project’s start-to-finish time to eight months from the normal 18 to 24 months. Promises of a faster completion will attract more tenants, said D’Ambra, who is hopeful that the economy will rebound in late 2010.
“What we’re doing is spending money to get everything teed up,” he said.
D’Ambra said he has spent about $500,000 on planning the 540,000-square-foot project designed by the Robinson Green Beretta Corp. in Providence. He thinks corporations will find the $267 million intermodal facility an attractive neighbor. The facility scheduled for completion in September 2010 will consist of a train station, parking garage, space for car-rental companies and a pedestrian bridge over Post Road linking the facility to the T.F. Green Airport terminal. In September, the state reached an agreement with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to run commuter trains between Boston and the new facility though, for now, Amtrak will not stop at the station. D’Ambra said he had long considered developing his 8.5-acre lot, but plans really started forming a decade ago when the late U.S. Sen. John Chafee secured federal money to construct the intermodal facility. As that project grew and moved forward, so did planning at the D’Ambra headquarters for its development. And D’Ambra, whose company specializes in roadwork, has already arranged to move his existing asphalt plant from Warwick to Johnston.
“[It] got to this size because of the train station and then the connectively to the airport,” D’Ambra said.
D’Ambra said the intersection of transportation options provides a location ideally suited for businesses that attract clients from around the world. A client could fly in from California or take the train from Boston. He could stay at the 320-room hotel D’Ambra wants to incorporate into the project, while eating at the hotel’s restaurant and working out at the gym. The client could walk back to the airport or train station without ever stepping outside thanks to the arrangement D’Ambra has reached with the Rhode Island Airport Corp. to directly connect the facilities.
It is just the type of visitor the city wants to attract, said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, who said the planned intermodal facility has already helped spur development of the area.
The Hampton Garden Inn opened a few years ago and the developer completed the accompanying Iron Works Tavern earlier this month. The mayor also touts his city as having lower taxes than Providence, plenty of free parking and easy highway access. And developers, the mayor said, are starting to notice.
“All of this bodes incredibly well for the city,” Avedisian said. “At a time when most communities are showing no growth this really is a very positive, upbeat place to be right now.” •