The De La Salle Christian Brothers early last year announced plans to build a 132-unit mixed-income housing development on the organization’s 106-acre parcel in Narragansett.
This week, Providence Business News caught up with Brother Edmond Precourt, superior of the Long Island-New England District, about the need for affordable housing in Narragansett and where the project is now.
PBN: Let’s start with the basics – tell me a little bit about the development and why it’s needed.
PRECOURT: Basically, for a number of years, the brothers have been looking at the possibility of a development on the property. We have 106 acres and we’re not using a good portion of that.
So a survey was done and we saw that there was significant need for senior housing in Narragansett. I really became highly sensitized to that when I needed to find a place for my mother, who is currently 89 years old and on a fixed income. It was quite clear that the availability in the Narragansett area was slim. Waiting lists are extremely long for the properties that are available for seniors on fixed income.
The mission of the brothers has been, all these years, since our foundation over 300 years ago, working with poor kids. Since these seniors are on fixed income, I addressed the need with the brothers of expanding our mission to try to help our wisdom people who are on fixed income and deserve the right to have a good life. And they agreed that we should continue to pursue this project.
PBN: This is your first major housing development in Rhode Island. Could you tell me a little bit about working with the town?
PRECOURT: We’ve been attempting to partner with the town, because we are aware that the town is only at about 2.2 or 2.3 percent of the needed affordable senior housing.
The town submitted a master plan to the state a few years ago and the reality is our property was part of the master plan. Unbeknownst to me, they were looking at it as a way of trying to reach their goal. Their projection was that we should probably have about 100 units of senior housing. We’re looking at providing 80 units of senior housing and 10 units of work force housing, which would give the town 90 units of affordable housing.
We’re very, very pleased with the relationship with the town, however, with projects like this, it’s ongoing, it’s long, it takes time. Unfortunately, there are a lot of hoops that you have to jump through.
PBN: Much of your property is wetlands, too. Has your permitting process been difficult?
PRECOURT: We have the initial permitting and the boundaries of wetlands, etc., are in compliance with all the prerequisites that were part of the initial submission.
Obviously, that was part of the master plan. We’re now going for the preliminary plan, which is going to require more detailed work to submit to [the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.] Unfortunately DEM doesn’t move very quickly.
PBN: Do you have a timeline going forward? How about a completion date?
PRECOURT: We’re still going through the paperwork. Everything depends on how quickly things move. My guess is the outside probably would be three years from now. It’s probably going to take a year and a half for paperwork and jumping through all the hoops. I’d say construction will probably begin in two-and-a-half to three years.
PBN: This project was announced early last year, before the recession really took hold. Do you expect that economic decline to affect your project?
PRECOURT: I don’t think so. I think that, if we had the units built and they had to be sold or rented at this point, it might be problematic.
I think that as the economy starts to come back in two to three years, we’ll be in decent shape.
