PROVIDENCE – City officials are making progress on plans for a new Department of Public Works complex.
Plans for the building, which would be located on Ernest Street in the Washington Park neighborhood, are set to be presented to the City Plan Commission Feb. 18.
The building would 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.
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 Allens Avenue, is responsible for maintaining Providence’s infrastructure and features seven divisions, including administration, engineering, traffic, parking, highway and environmental.
This location is outdated and has “lacked significant investment over the years,” said Estrella, adding, a timeline for construction on the new facility “has yet to be determined.”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.
The city has asked the City Plan Commission to grant waivers from submitting lighting and signage plans and state approvals at the preliminary plan stage, and to instead have them sent at the permitting stage. Also, the city is requesting that preliminary and master plan approval be combined.
The City Plan Commission is scheduled to meet Feb. 18 at 4:45 p.m. in the Joseph Doorley Municipal Building. Attendees can also join the meeting via Zoom.
(UPDATE: Adds comment from Smiley administration spokesperson Josh Estrella in paragraphs 6, 9 and 10.)
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
Shouldn’t he pay for the shortage in the school system budget first with this money?