PROVIDENCE – The I-195 Redevelopment District Commission selected CV Properties LLC as the preferred developer for parcels 14 and 15 during Wednesday evening’s meeting.
The commission voted to approve the developer after hearing a presentation from RES Group, a real estate consultancy group which analyzed the project’s strength and weaknesses, and from the commission’s architectural consultant Utile Inc., which recommended the commission picked CV Properties based on the “strength of their initial proposal.”
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CV Properties, a commercial real estate development and investment company, is proposing to anchor the parcels on Dyer Street with an 11-story, 149-unit residential building with a commercial space on the first floor. The two-phase proposal also outlines plans for an adjacent parcel of land that is owned by Brown University.
For the first phase of the project, the 189,300-square-foot residential building will include 8,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, which the company said can be used for retail or restaurant use, and 10 floors of residential units, which will include a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The plan also includes 56 on-site underground parking spaces. CV Properties said it is committing 10% – or 15 units – to workforce housing.
The long-term master plans would incorporate the site owned by Brown, which currently houses a two-story building used for administrative offices and parking, to create more than 500,000 square feet of mixed-use development over time, with more than 400,000 square feet of planned commercial office and laboratory uses.
CV Properties said they are planning to start construction in May 2024.
CV Properties is proposing to buy the parcels for $600,000. The company said the property will be added to the city’s commercial tax rolls, despite Brown’s ties to the project, and that it will seek a tax stabilization agreement with the city. Now that the commission has selected the developer, they will negotiate a purchase and sale agreement.
At the same meeting, Urbanica Inc. presented its updated design plans for parcel 2. The Boston-based firm entered into a $2 million purchase and sale agreement for the parcel in March 2022, with plans to build a curvy, six-story, 134,750-square-foot building with 194 apartments and ground-floor retail space.
Urbanica’s latest design includes some changes made following input from neighborhood groups, including scaling down the size of the building to better match the surrounding facilities and removing the bridge connecting the two buildings.
While the originally proposal included 194 units—182 market units and 12 affordable units—the new design reduced the number of units to 171, of which 166 are market units and five are affordable. The total number of parking spaces was also reduced from 90 to 60.
“The new design vision is equally strong as the initial vision and is even more responsive to the unique site conditions and context,” Utile said in a memo. “The development team has shown uncommon versatility, commitment, and willingness to listen to and respond to local stakeholder feedback on the project’s design direction.”
The commission is still receiving public input from the public as the developer prepares for concept and final plan approval.
Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.
If you wonder why RI has a housing crisis, you wouldn’t be far from truth if you laid the excessive red tape and administrative bungling as part of the cause. Time is money and the slow speed of getting these projects to reality is simply wasteful to all involved; the developers and the community.
If 10% is “affordable” and 90% is not, how is that addressing the crisis? Housing doesn’t trickle down.