Nearly two years after breaking ground, Providence’s newest office building and soon-to-be home of GTECH Holdings Corp. is “substantially completed.” And a Fidelity Investments investor center is the first business to open shop in the blue glass-and-steel structure.
“It feels great. It feels like we are coming to the end of a pretty long journey,” said Richard Galvin, president of Southport, Conn.-based Commonwealth Ventures LLC, co-developer of the building with majority owner USAA Real Estate Co., of San Antonio.
Stay Ahead of Winter Respiratory Illnesses: Expert Advice from South County Health Express Care Providers
As winter progresses, so does the season of respiratory illnesses. Colds, the flu, RSV, and…
Learn More
Gilbane Building Co., the general contract for the project, has obtained a certificate of occupancy for the building and its 250-car garage, said Kristy M. dosReis, a spokeswoman for the Providence-based construction firm. Though some interior work remains, she said, the 210,000-square-foot building is “substantially completed.”
Fidelity opened its 7,200-square-foot investor center on the ground floor of the building in late September, moving from an office space half that size at Providence Place mall across the street. The company said the GTECH building, at Francis Street and Memorial Boulevard, offered it the chance to expand while still keeping a presence downtown.
“The new space offers us the ability to offer our clients a much better overall experience,” said Steven Kashian, a Fidelity Investments vice president and branch manager of the new investor center.
The 10-story, $80 million structure is the first office building to be erected in the city’s downtown since One Citizens Plaza went up less than a mile away in the early 1990s. And though experts say the new project is a sign of investors’ confidence in Providence real estate, the rate at which the building is leased will be a truer indicator or demand.
GTECH expects to move 500 employees into the building starting Nov. 13, said Angela Wiczek, a spokeswoman for the $1.3 billion lottery giant. The company’s move to Providence from its headquarters in West Greenwich was part of a 2003 agreement with the state to run Rhode Island’s lottery for 20 years.
GTECH plans to occupy 110,000 square feet, on floors five through eight, said Commonwealth’s Galvin, leaving 55,000 square feet of office space available for lease on the top two floors, nine and 10. (Floors two, three and four are the parking garage.) Rental rates for the vacant office space are $38 to $40 per square foot, higher than at any other office building downtown.
Similar high-rise office space in the Boston area costs far more, however, renting at rates in the mid-$50s per square foot, Galvin said. The GTECH building is the newest and most modern space in the city, he added, it is adjacent to Waterplace Park, and it offers garage parking, restaurants opening on the first floor and access to Providence Place.
Alden M. Anderson Jr., first vice president and partner of CB Richard Ellis/New England’s Providence office, said efforts to lease office space in the GTECH building will benefit from a “relatively tight” market, with limited Class-A office space available in the region.
Also, the building’s 55,000 square feet of vacant space are unlikely to soften the overall downtown office market, according to Anderson, whose firm is in the running to serve as leasing agent for the new building. With some 5.6 million square feet of office space in the city’s downtown, he said, the extra space in the GTECH building equates to less than 1 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, the first-floor retail component of the new building is nearly all spoken for, according to Galvin.
The Ruth’s Chris Steak House chain plans to open a restaurant in a 10,000-square-foot space overlooking Waterplace. Developers are in talks with a second restaurant that would take up another 9,000 square feet, he said, and the rest of the available space will house a convenience store and café in the building’s lobby.
Commonwealth Ventures, which Galvin founded in 2003, also co-owns two other office buildings in Providence: One Financial Plaza, a 28-story office tower at Kennedy Plaza; and Gateway Center, a four-level building next to the Providence train station.