East Greenwich housing project set to break ground

EAST GREENWICH – On a site smaller than an acre and just a block west of Main Street, a 15-cottage housing development is set to break ground by the fall.
Construction on “The Cottages on Greene Street,” designed by Donald Powers Architects and to be built by 620 Main Street Associates, should start by September, DPA Principal Donald Powers said in a recent interview. The cottages will be gathered around a public green space instead of a central road – a New Urbanism-inspired design, Powers said.
“I think it’s a real response – there is an emerging market because of the decline of the financial market and the recession we’re in, for smaller and less expensive” homes, Powers said. “That’s synchronizing with the whole awareness of environmentalism and reducing our carbon footprint.”
He added, “You’ve created a situation where people are willing to pay more for smaller [houses] than they would have even a year ago.” The cottages will likely sell for about $250,000 to $270,000 each.
The development is planned for the area between Greene and Friendship streets, bordered on the east by CVS/pharmacy. Powers, who lives in East Greenwich, said he has taken notice of several other “underutilized” properties near Main Street in the “buffer zone between the commercial and residential neighborhoods.”
He continued, “That happens all over the state, from Providence down to Narragansett. So this project was an attempt to show how you could get what, on paper, seems like a very high-density project, close to downtown.”
Founded in 2000, Donald Powers Architects Inc. is based on Providence. For additional information, visit www.DonaldPowersArchitects.com.