Demolition to a dilapidated block of Downcity will resume next month as developer Arnold “Buff” Chace transforms the former home to Travelers Aid and surrounding properties into a mix of parking garage, retail and residential units.
Three buildings were leveled this fall in the downtown block surrounded by Westminster, Weybosset, Union and Clemence streets. Chace, president and CEO of Providence-based Cornish Associates, plans to raze the largest structure, the Travelers Aid building, and the smaller Continental building. He plans to build a 500-space, eight-story parking garage, which would primarily serve several buildings he renovated nearby in his attempt to create a mixed-use community in Downcity.
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Two separate buildings will hide the garage on Westminster and Weybosset streets and will include retail on the first level and apartments or condos above.
The only building that will remain on the block is the Roger Williams building on the corner of Westminster and Clemence streets, Chace said, which is historically significant and owned by developer Stanley Weiss. There is also an existing small parking lot on the site.
The project is called Grant’s Block Development, named after the discount department store W.T. Grant that used to be located on the site.
“Rather than bringing the parking garage (entrance) to Weybosset and Westminster streets, which are A streets, or pedestrian friendly, our proposal is for the building to have an entrance off Union, and to have Westminster and Weybosset be retail,” Chace said; “that way people aren’t looking at (a garage entrance) when they walk by.”
The $40 million project awaits approval from the Downcity District Design Review Committee, a result of Mayor David Cicilline’s change of the city’s zoning philosophy to encourage ‘smart growth.’ The committee recently received a staffing overhaul, and Chace said the committee is not yet fully staffed, which has slowed progress.
Crews are currently conducting asbestos abatement in the Travelers Aid building, and electrical and ventilation ducts and other infrastructure in the shelter and on the site had to be temporarily relocated to make way for construction, Chace said.
“It’s a very complex project,” he said. “It involves not only demolition, but we discovered utility lines (on site) and the city is planning to turn Weybosset into a two-way system. We’ve proposed to give increased right-of-way on the block to allow for Union Street to be widened and turned into a two-way so that traffic can access the building from both directions.”
The residential portions of the buildings surrounding the garage could be either rental or condo units, Chace said, depending on what the market demands. Cornish recently sent out a survey to hundreds of people who had visited the rental office, interested in the other buildings the developer has transformed into apartments and lofts.
“So many people said that they enjoy living downtown but that they (don’t want to) rent; they want to buy,” he said. “So our design to date allows for some flexibility in that area, depending on what the market requires.”
The building on the Westminster Street side will most likely have 12 to 15 units and the residential building on the Weybosset side will have 25 to 30 units, according to the developer.
Chace declined to discuss a construction schedule but did say he hopes to get approval for the project in a few months, and said ideally foundation work would begin this summer, with construction commencing this fall.
