It’s hard to ignore the issue of mill redevelopment these days.
Awareness is being raised by Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., who recently submitted ordinances to the Providence City Council for the Mill Restoration Program.
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A group called Brick and Timber LLC has purchased the Centerdale Worsted Mills building at 100 Bosworth St. and a group of artists have purchased the Monohasset Mill building at 532 Kinsley St.
Driving through Eagle Square it is difficult to miss the billboard put up by the Citizens for an Urban Development at Eagle Square. CUD(ES) is an umbrella organization which includes the Providence Preservation Society, West Broadway Neighborhood Association, Providence Mill Building Association, Federal Hill/Broadway Initiative, Conservation Law Foundation and the Small Business Association of 25 Eagle Street. And there is even talk that the Uncas Manufacturing building will be saved in the redevelopment of the Eagle Square area that will be Providence Commons.
Cianci said this is all positive activity.
“The ordinances, and all components of the multi-faceted Mill Restoration Program, will build momentum for the rehabilitation and reuse of our city’s mill buildings, spur the creation of new market-rate housing and, at the same time preserve a significant piece of our rich industrial past,” he said.
Raphael Lyon, a representative of the Providence Mill Building Association and part of CUD(ES), said while it is uncertain how much will change because of the billboard his organization put up in the area, awareness is the most important step towards that change.
“I think that it is our job as citizens to be very clear about what kinds of things we want,” he said, “because without that it will never be possible to get it.”
The billboard, secured by CUD(ES) for this month, states: “Welcome to Historic Eagle SquareReal Jobs, Real Culture, Real Cities.Our Mills: The Future of Economic RevitalizationNow THAT’s a development!”
The billboard is paired with a Web site, at MightyServant.com, which details the history of the Eagle Square area.
Jennifer Cole Steel, co-founder of the Federal Hill/Broadway Initiative and a member of CUD(ES), said if 10 people each day go through the intersection where the sign is, or look up the Web site, and think about it, CUD(ES) has accomplished what it set out to do.
“It may not change anything but it gets people thinking about the fact that there is a community here already which will be razed for something that I think has no real community purpose,” she said. “It is geared toward Eagle Square specifically, but I think it has a bigger context.”
There have been a few different reactions to the signs.
“We’ve had several people ask if we did that billboard,” said Gene Beaudoin. “I guess there’s two ways to read it.”
Beaudoin is a partner with the New York-based Feldco Development, which is part of an entity known as New England Expedition-Providence, LLC, who are the developers of Providence Commons, a development designed for the space where the Eagle Square buildings are today. Feldco has been working with the mayor to come up with a plan for the area that will not be as stark a contrast to the urban environment there, but said the concessions have not been so much that they would put up a sign such as that one.
One concession that has come out however, is the possibility that Feldco will not destroy the Uncas Manufacturing Building.
Sources who would confirm this would not speak for attribution.
And where things currently stand for Eagle Square, Beaudoin would not say, except that Feldco has been making efforts to get on the agenda of the next Providence Plan Commission meeting, but has not yet succeeded.
Planning Director John Palmieri said he doesn’t want to schedule a Plan Commission meeting until a more formal talk with the mayor occurs, saying doing so would “probably not be good protocol.”
