has been abandoned for nearly
15 years. (Pillsbury Associates)
With the $4.25 million purchase of the former Kaiser Aluminum Factory in Portsmouth,
Carnegie Harbor Village is planning to convert the area where the factory building
has stood abandoned for almost 15 years into homes and an adjacent tower into
a hotel to complement the nearby Scottish links-style golf course, Carnegie Abbey
Club.
The Carnegie Harbor Village group is led by British oil magnate and yachtsman
Peter de Savary, who also has a 99-year lease on the 312-acre golf course from
the Portsmouth Abbey School.
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Tom Sweeney, vice president of Rodman Real Estate, finalized the purchase of the
land, which totals 57 acres.
“This is a substantial piece of property in Rhode Island,” said Sweeney. “Several
people have expressed interest in the land since its vacancy in the 1980s but
the deal with de Savary’s group just made sense.”
Paul Hogan, president of real estate group Hogan & Stone, is acting as a consultant
to Carnegie Harbor Village.
“It was under agreement for at least two years,” he said, “and Peter had just
been waiting for it to become available.”
De Savary said he was slightly frustrated that the area was undeveloped for so
long.
“There were numerous people negotiating and pretending they were going to buy
it for two years and we were very friendly to all of them,” he said. “We explained
we’d like to be good neighbors, but unfortunately none of them stepped up to the
mark, and we decided it was a very unattractive blot on the landscape to everybody.
Clearly it could turn into something more visually attractive to the members.”
To make the area more visually attractive, de Savary is prepared to spend a lot
of money.
“I suppose with the whole development we’re looking at spending something in the
order of $100 million over a number of years,” he said, “and we’re very keen to
make a start soon.”
The Carnegie group has filed a zoning application to modify an existing special
use permit and filed plans to modify the relief for a 420-unit hotel from a previous
developer.
“We’re looking to have all approvals in place by April next year,” said Hogan,
“and have it all completed in three to five years.”
The Kaiser site’s most distinguishing feature is a 270-foot tower, which will
be converted into a 200-room hotel. Hogan said the negotiations with the hotel
are 90 percent complete and he hopes to announce its identity, which he said is
a “publicly traded corporation,” by the end of this week.
“You can see all of downtown Providence and Block Island,” said Hogan of the view
from the tower.
Where the 16-acre building is, he said, will be 54 town houses, the average re-sale
of which will be about $600,000. There are also plans for a 79-slip marina, a
restaurant that will seat about 100, and about 20,000 square feet for corporate
office space.
Neil Galvin, senior partner at the law firm of Corcoran Peckham Hayes & Galvin,
represents the Carnegie Group. He said the group is excited about pushing forward
with a productive use for the property.
“It’s just been lying unused with some level of security and monitoring and maintenance,
but no activity beyond that,” he said.
Scott Lamb, a spokesman for Kaiser, said that after pondering a variety of options,
the Carnegie deal was a good one for Kaiser. He said the Portsmouth location,
which opened in 1968, employed about 300 at its peak.
