The $300 million plans for a flashy, 46-floor luxury tower on former Interstate 195 land in Providence are moving ahead even as a legal challenge continues to make its way through the courts, according to the project’s developer.
A neighborhood group behind the lawsuit says not so fast.
The Fane Organization and its owner, New York real estate developer Jason Fane, say they have every intention of following through with the controversial high-rise project, even though there have been repeated delays and extensions of deadlines since it was first unveiled in 2016.
“Mr. Fane is committed to meeting all the requirements of the I-195 commission,” Fane spokesman James Malachowski said recently. “Mr. Fane has faith in Providence.”
Indeed, the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission said it has been having ongoing discussions with the Fane Organization about the proposed tower, and district staff recently received new design documents from Fane. Those documents were not immediately available for public review.
“Our outside consultants are completing their review of the materials,” said Robert Davis, chairperson of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission. “Once that review is completed, our staff will communicate with the Fane Organization about its request for further extensions in view of the commitments it has made to the commission and the taxpayers of the state.”
For more than a year, the Fane Organization has sought to lift the deadlines under which it is required to begin development, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on travel and services.
‘People have to have an appreciation of … what is needed to complete final designs.’
JAMES MALACHOWSKI, Fane Organization spokesman
Because of a pending legal challenge to the project, it is expected Fane will seek an extension of an Oct. 15 “exercise date,” a deadline for Fane to commit to buying the proposed building site. The unoccupied land known as Parcel 42 is located on Dyer Street, overlooking the Providence River and the district’s public park on the west side of the river. The price: $3.2 million.
Malachowski said the Fane Organization will not finalize the purchase and sale agreement until next year.
“We’re not qualifying it beyond that, next year, the first or second quarter,” Malachowski said. “We don’t want to set any false expectations. We want to see how the design process goes. He still has a number of things to do to get there. But, as I said, he is actively working hard on this project.”
The overall design of the building remains the same. It would be about 530 feet tall with a wavy, white exterior meant to imitate the rippled surface of the adjacent river. If constructed according to plan, it would be the tallest structure in Providence, higher than the iconic 428-foot-tall Industrial Trust Co. Building.
One of the most prominent changes to the project so far: the name. The developers have jettisoned the building’s original name – the Hope Point Tower – and have taken to calling it the Fane Tower.
Other details are still being worked out, Malachowski said, including the number of units in the building, the layout of the lobby, the way the property connects with a parking lot and a scheme for garbage trucks to get into and out of the property.
“Obviously, it’s critically important to get your final design and engineering documents down on paper correctly,” Malachowski said. “That’s what Mr. Fane has been doing, and he’s been spending considerable money. … People have to have an appreciation of the magnitude of the building, and what is needed to complete final designs. He has to have architectural drawings of every plate, every wire, every angle and material, and that takes quite a while.”
However, a lawyer for Building Bridges Providence Inc., a nonprofit based in the Jewelry District, warned that Fane shouldn’t invest too much money in the project, suggesting that the group will be successful in its lawsuit to stop the project because it violates zoning regulations.
“Fane is proceeding at his own risk,” said Armando Batastini of the law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, who is representing Building Bridges Providence.
The Building Bridges Providence legal challenge claims that the Fane Tower project violates height restrictions in the area around Parcel 42 that were incorporated into the city’s Comprehensive Plan in 2014. The restriction limited new construction to 100 feet in height.
The group lost its first battle in R.I. Superior Court in late 2020 when Judge Brian P. Stern ruled that Building Bridges Providence, along with its co-plaintiff Peter Scotti & Associates Inc., failed to meet its burden in demonstrating how a Providence City Council amendment allowing for new construction up to 600 feet was inconsistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Stern said that when the evidence is “fairly debatable,” according to a prior state Supreme Court ruling, the city’s zoning ordinance should be given a “presumption of validity.”
The ruling has been appealed to R.I. Supreme Court, although no hearing dates have been scheduled since February.
“We look forward to having the Supreme Court review our appeal,” Batastini said. “And we believe that our appeal is both meritorious and has a likelihood of success.”
Fane’s spokesperson said the organization is not worried about the lawsuit, and Fane himself continues to work with specialists in tower construction to push the project forward. Engineers were on-site in the spring, drilling for soil samples to determine how deep the footings for the tower will need to be.
“Mr. Fane believes this suit does not have merit,” Malachowski said. “My personal opinion is [the tower] will be fantastic and, once it’s built, people will come to Providence just to see it. It’s going to have an ‘Oh, wow’ factor, unlike anything we’ve seen in the state.”
The Fane tower will take two years to build, with shovels expected to hit the ground sometime next year, Malachowski said.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
