If chef Scott Hampson is right, he’ll soon dish up a lot more lunches. This year, Providence will move some city departments to 444 Westminster St., a brick edifice across the street from Hampson’s Celtic Lounge. For Hampson, the move holds promise of many more mouths to feed.
“It’s very tough in this city to stay alive, this summer that will help us a great deal,” Hampson said.
The roughly 130 employees representing six city departments will occupy a building left vacant when Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island moved out in 2009, dealing a blow to local merchants.
In its new life, the building will host departments currently spread across the city. The Providence Board of Contract and Supply approved a lease in April and the first city employees are expected to start moving in during July.
Hampson said the move has been the talk of the neighborhood, with local merchants hoping it fills the void left by Blue Cross, which also left a neighboring building now occupied by gaming company 38 Studios.
“It generates business and everybody gets a little piece of the pie,” Hampson said.
Hoping to vie for some of that pie is Therese Lavallee. The founder of Tsetse Gallery hopes the city employees and their visitors notice her gallery tucked along Empire Street. When the gallery was on Dorrance Street near Family Court, court employees frequented the gallery and often left a check behind. City employees, Lavallee hopes, will prove equally as generous.
“You’ve got a big pool of people that is going to walk by,” said Lavallee, who relocated the gallery two years ago.
City employees passing by will work in the City Solicitor’s Office, Department of Planning and Development, Department of Inspections and Standards, Work Force Solutions office, and Information Systems Department. Some of the Fire Marshal’s Office staff will also work in the building part time.
In announcing the moves in April, Mayor Angel Taveras said that combining offices into one building would save money and make doing business with the city easier.
The city will pay $735,000 in the first year of the lease for the 71,519-square-foot building owned by Paolino Properties. Rent will gradually increase to $1.2 million by year 10, representing a 63 percent increase. After a decade, rent will increase each year by 3 percent or an increase tied to the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.
Mayor Taveras’ office said that the first year’s cost represented what the city currently pays for 45,000 square feet of office space scattered throughout the capital city.
“It costs the same as previous leases signed by the city for office space while increasing the city’s total available space,” said David Ortiz, the mayor’s press secretary.
Since April, Paolino Properties has been readying the building for workers. Owner and Partner Joseph Paolino Jr. said the city is paying for the work that includes painting and small carpentry projects.
The city plans to pay the $100,000 tab from money set aside for building renovations. The building, however, comes ready with furniture that will save the city “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, Ortiz said.
In the first year, rent will be $10.28 a square foot. Earlier this year, CB Richard Ellis reported that prime office space in the city was renting for an average of $29.60 a square foot.
“They’re getting this building at below-market rate. They were fortunate that I needed a tenant and I had an empty building,” Paolino said.
Lavallee, the gallery owner, is just happy someone moved in.
“I’d rather have the city workers than nobody,” she said. •
