Rhode Island’s construction scene has been a busy one since the Providence Business News first hit the streets in 1986 — and that pace of growth has quickened significantly in recent years.
Step back in time to the first days of PBN and recall that T.F. Green was — by most standards — a tiny airport. There was certainly no need for multi-level parking garages and acres of parking spaces.
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The Rhode Island landscape was much different than it is today. The Rhode Island Convention Center, the Westin Hotel, the Marriott Courtyard, Waterplace Park, and of course, Providence Place, for example, did not exist.
But the 1990s were years of great prosperity – and that prosperity rubbed off on a construction industry that did not allow itself to be shaken by a credit union crisis or an economy that found itself slowing at the end of the “go-go ’80s.”
It was a construction industry that during the past decade-and-a-half not only rebuilt much of downtown Providence, but also delivered a massive CVS headquarters to a new industrial park in Woonsocket and a sprawling new campus for mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments in Smithfield.
And there has been more — so much more.
Up and down Route 95 signs of the good times kept rising – from a Holiday Inn at the Crossing, now Crowne Plaza, in Warwick to a massive retail development featuring a BJ’s Wholsesale Club in Coventry. Wal-Marts seemed to be popping up everywhere. And at all of the state’s colleges and universities, a healthy economy and the generosity of taxpayers – who consistently and overwhelmingly approved bond referenda — paved the way for numerous building projects.
But no project — throughout not only the history of the Providence Business News, but the state itself – was as big as the construction of Providence Place, which opened in August of 2000. The $400 million project resulted in 1,275,000 square feet of leasable space and 4,500 parking spaces. Providence Place was a decade in planning and took more than two years to build. But more than anything, it reshaped the city — serving as a standard bearer for Capital Center and the Providence Renaissance.
“The opening of Providence Place has, in one stroke, made downtown Providence the principal shopping and entertainment center in Rhode Island once again,” said Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr.
And Providence Place appears to be spurring further construction projects.
A mixed-use building, currently in design development, will be the newest jewel in the Capitol City Design District, and a neighbor to the Courtyard by Marriott and Providence Place.
The ten-story building – which is estimated at $50 to 60 million — will be located on the corner of Memorial Boulevard and Francis Street. It will feature six floors of “Class A” office space, parking for 300 cars and two floors of restaurant and retail space.
The Parcel Nine project will be a smart building.
An official name for the project has yet to be selected — Parcel Nine refers
to the actual plot of land on which the building will sit.
The coming years, in fact, appear to have the potential to match the previous 15 when it comes to construction.
In South County, work is well underway for a new 8,000-seat Convocation Center at the University of Rhode Island, the largest construction project in the school’s long history. More hotels are planned in Providence – and a $32 million, 130,000-square-foot Public Safety Complex (police and fire headquarters) is currently keeping at least 200 workers busy on the outskirts of downtown as they push for a targeted December 2001 opening.
In fact, 2001 is expected to be an especially strong year for the construction industry.
There are more than $340 million in proposed construction projects for Providence County alone – and another $160 million for proposed projects in Kent County, $143 million for Washington County, and $14 million each in Bristol and Newport Counties.
“Business is definitely good for all of our members,” said Eric F. Anderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America.
Cianci sees opportunities abounding for further construction in Providence —
particularly as dozens of acres open up for development as a result of the impending
move of Route 195. “As we turn our attention to the Route 195 areathe lessons
of Capital Center are clear,” he said. “If we set the highest possible design
and construction standards, the real estate market will respond. The suburbs will
continue to attract development.”
