Partners J. Hogue and Michael Lozano and are developing the former W.T. Grant Department Store in Pawtucket into a space for artists.
Projects run into barriers, especially to mixed use
Nearly two and a half years after starting renovations, Firehouse No. 13 last week finally got the thumbs-up on its fire inspection from the Providence fire marshal.
One would think the mixed-use residential/commercial/exhibition and performance space for the arts might soon get its certificate of occupancy as well. But Firehouse director Anna Shapiro said she has learned not to get her hopes up.
Getting this far in the development process has taken much, much more time than she or owner Nick Bauta or project manager John McGurk had anticipated, she said. And there are still more inspections to pass.
Developers of The Grant, at 250 Main St. in Pawtucket, faced similar delays before getting their temporary certificate of occupancy, said Michael Lozano, co-owner of the 21,000-square-foot building that he and Art In Ruins founder J. Hogue plan to develop into a mixed-use space for design firms, a café, an art gallery and two residential units.
Many of Lozano’s and Hogue’s development issues have stemmed from adhering to strictly enforced fire codes.
“Rhode Island is in a strange climate because of The Station fire,” Lozano said. “People don’t seem to be understanding that it is becoming a really huge impediment for development.”
He is concerned about far more than the fire code, however. Small arts developers face even greater challenges coming into compliance, he said, because they don’t have the time or the resources to pay someone to help them navigate the system and manage the relationships.
Relationship management with the inspectors has been a specific hardship for Firehouse No. 13, said Shapiro, because of several personnel changes in city departments.
“There has been no communication between retiring, promoted and incoming personnel assigned to our project,” she wrote in a letter to Mayor David N. Cicilline dated Oct. 31.
Shapiro added: “Much of our frustration stems from the feeling that this project has been passed like a hot potato through multiple shifts in personnel and policy, with no continuity.”
The Firehouse might need a second rough inspection, for example, because the inspector who conducted the first rough inspection didn’t sign the paperwork, Shapiro said. And because the inspector in question no longer works for the city, there is no way to prove the first rough inspection was ever completed. There was no transfer of information within the department.
Things have improved, however, since the city assigned a point person specifically for the Firehouse project, Shapiro said. The process has accelerated.
Lynne McCormack, director of the Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, called Shapiro’s letter a “call to action, to get things rolling.”
“It’s not just these small projects that are struggling,” she said. “It’s any building project in the city.”
There are several management positions in the city’s Department of Inspections and Standards that need to be filled, said Karen Southern, the mayor’s press secretary. And the city is in the midst of a national search for a director of that department.
“Things are not happening as fast as we’d like, but the city is working on that,” Southern said.
Lozano said Pawtucket has made a concerted effort to improve the code-compliance process by providing weekly meetings for developers who want to discuss concerns with department heads.
But more could be done. “The whole process needs to be streamlined,” he said. “It needs to be re-evaluated from the state level.”
In addition to being a developer of The Grant, Lozano is the director of real estate development for Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services, a nonprofit that develops affordable housing in the Elmwood section of Providence.
Having prior development experience helped him to navigate the system in a fairly timely manner, Lozano said. It took four months to get The Grant’s temporary certificate of occupancy.
“For young developers, when it’s their first time going through the process, the development process is very complicated,” said Laura Mullen, coordinator of the sustainable artist space initiative for the R.I. Council for the Arts.
The process is especially complicated for developments mixing residential with commercial and venue space, she noted.
That complication is precisely why Cutler Mills owner and developer David Wescott said he has limited the development of his 150,000 square feet of mill space in Warren to artist studios and small commercial enterprises.
“It is more difficult with the zoning and building officials when you have residential,” he said.
But unlike other small developers, Wescott said he hasn’t had trouble navigating the code-compliance system.
“I have to give Warren credit,” he said. “They’ve worked with me all along. Because it’s a small town, it’s probably a little easier.”
Wescott said he has developed more than 40 units into artist studios and small commercial space since he began the project 11 years ago. He does most of the work himself.
Meanwhile, as Wescott plugs along, Shapiro keeps her fingers crossed.
Shapiro said she’s already lost the 12 artists who had been waiting to move into the Firehouse’s second floor residences. And the Art Recreation Center, a company that owns and develops the Firehouse, is losing money with each passing day.
“It’s just a matter of how far in debt can you go,” Shapiro said.
