PROVIDENCE – Plans for a new Department of Public Works complex were approved by the Providence City Plan Commission Tuesday.
The building will stand two stories tall and span 48,000 square feet. The plan includes 74 parking spaces and 10 bicycle parking spaces, five of which will be long-term spaces in the shipping room. It will be on a vacant portion of Ernest Street, where a Department of Public Works building is already located.
City leaders have been eyeing a new Department of Public Works complex for years.
In 2017, former Mayor Jorge O. Elorza allocated $30 million of his $122 million, five-year capital plan for the project.
Mayor Brett P. Smiley included $25 million for a new public works complex in his $132 million fiscal 2024
capital improvement plan. The Providence Public Building Authority also allocated $30 million for the project, said Josh Estrella, a spokesperson for Smiley’s office.
In September 2023, Rowse Architects was awarded the contract to develop the project after the city issued a request for proposals.
The city’s Department of Public Works, currently located on the corner of Ernest Street and Allens Avenue, is responsible for maintaining Providence’s infrastructure and features seven divisions, including administration, engineering, traffic, parking, highway, sewer and environmental.
This location is outdated and has “lacked significant investment over the years,” said Estrella, adding that a construction timeline for the new facility “has yet to be determined.”
Estrella said the new complex will be designed to be completely electric and carbon neutral by 2029, aligning with Providence’s goal to make all city-owned buildings carbon neutral by 2040. The complex will be the first new building designed and constructed since the city’s decarbonization ordinance passed last year.
Brittany Grant, vice president of Rowse Architects, said construction is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete. She also said the existing brick building on the site is planned to be used for storage. Eventually, the developers hope to demolish the building and create a new indoor vehicle storage facility, but they don’t have the funds to do so yet.
The City Plan Commission granted a dimensional relief to allow the project to have a driveway that’s 35 feet wide, in which 24 feet is required. The commission also granted waivers to combine master and preliminary plan approval and to bypass requirements to submit a lighting and signage plan and state approvals at the preliminary plan stage, so long as they are submitted at the permitting stage.
Final approval for the project is up to the city’s Department of Planning and Development staff. It was not immediately clear when, or if, the plans would be presented again.
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
