Aiming to build a new “neighborhood on the Bay,” Gilbane Development Co. has signed an agreement with British Petroleum to buy a 40-acre property known as Kettle Point on the East Providence waterfront, more than half of it brownfields.
Gilbane’s plan is to transform the former petroleum storage facility off Veterans Memorial Parkway into a community of 280 to 300 townhouses, cottages and lofts, a marina and boat launch, and a 10,000-square-foot commercial building.
If all the necessary approvals are granted, Gilbane said, site work would begin later this year, with the first new houses ready for occupancy next year, and a complete build-out by 2015, “depending on market conditions.”
Kettle Point would be Gilbane’s largest residential development ever in Rhode Island, said company spokesman Wes Cotter. Gilbane also is building waterfront communities in Washington, Arizona and Narragansett (the Pier Village). It has made a point of looking for good opportunities in Rhode Island, Cotter said, and has been negotiating with BP on Kettle Point for “a couple of years.”
Robert V. Gilbane, president and CEO of Gilbane Development, said he expects the site – nestled between Squantum Woods, Watchemocket Cove and the Providence River, and near the East Bay Bike Path – to appeal to a broad audience.
“We were attracted to the site for several reasons: the fabulous views, the proximity to the bike path and the access is excellent,” he said. “Coming from Providence on Route 195, there is not a single traffic light. I see everyone from graduate students, professors, professionals, doctors, people who like to boat or fish, and, particularly, I think it will appeal to the baby boomers. We see a very diverse neighborhood here.”
But first there are environmental challenges. Like many other parcels in East Providence’s 300-acre Waterfront Special Development District, the site is partially contaminated.
“Arco and Amoco operated there since 1915, and the Arco facility was cleaned up by Arco, but with the other facility, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management had approved a long-term remediation stabilization plan, but it is very long-term, over 100 years,” Gilbane said. The developer will clean up what’s still contaminated, he said, “some to commercial standards and some to residential standards.”
The project itself will also be environmentally friendly, he said, with good insulation and environmentally friendly products and materials. “As you look at people today,” he said, “there’s a very strong environmental effort, and they want the developer to think long and hard about the types of materials are used.”
The development will include two interior parks. In addition, residents will have a private beach and access to and parking for the East Bay Bike Path, and there will be 5,000 feet of public walking paths and public access to the waterfront.
“The lower portion has 1,200 feet of frontage on Providence River, there is additional waterfront on two ponds, and it is adjacent to an 80-acre park,” Gilbane said. “When you’re out there, you feel like you’re in the middle of the woods, but you’re just minutes from Providence. We’ll be focused on making Kettle Point a destination point.”
Ten percent of the units will be affordable, Gilbane said. He wouldn’t predict the cost of the other units, saying it has not yet been fully determined.
The design for the entire project will be “traditional seacoast architecture,” he said, adding: “We like to develop communities that look like turn-of-the-century regional architecture.”
Gilbane Development briefed the East Providence City Council on its plans last month, but it has not presented the details yet to city officials, so City Planner Jeanne M. Boyle said she couldn’t comment on the plans yet. Projects in the city’s waterfront cistrict are overseen by a special Waterfront Commission created to expedite permitting and approvals.
