PAWTUCKET – Developers have expressed preliminary interest in building on two sites close to the proposed new location for the Pawtucket Red Sox ballpark, potentially providing revenue that will be required for the city to cover its share of the building program.
The city issued a release on the development interest Wednesday, seeking to provide evidence that it will generate the needed annual payments from ancillary development to cover its share of the ballpark construction.
Churchill & Banks, a Providence development company, has signed a letter of interest in acquiring the city-owned property at the Tidewater site, on the west bank of the Seekonk River, as well as the portion of the property owned by National Grid that is “suited for development.” The company conceives a commercial development with a mix of office, retail and multifamily, perhaps 200 units or more, according to company President Richard Baccari II.
Another developer, as yet unidentified by the city, is interested in a site that would support a hotel of 100 to 150 rooms, located closer to the proposed ballpark, according to Mayor Donald Grebien, who said the hotel could be a Marriott brand.
In publicly announcing both prospects, Grebien said he is trying to allay fears that Pawtucket can’t deliver the necessary revenue to support its end of the baseball stadium financing. The audience is the General Assembly, which has yet to act on the proposed financing legislation that would authorize the ballpark, he said.
The state Senate committee that held a series of hearings on the PawSox financing is expected to issue its report by Christmas, according to Grebien.
Pawtucket officials have asked the developers to express their development interest in writing, he said.
“We’re trying to show folks the ancillary development will happen,” Grebien said. “And that we will be able to generate the revenue with the new ancillary development.”
In a rough estimate, the city said the two development projects could produce $600,000 in city revenue. The city’s debt service for its PawSox bonds has been estimated at $900,000 annually, for 30 years.
The Nov. 8 letter of interest, submitted by Churchill & Banks, stresses the preliminary nature of the development. But the developer is seeking permission to enter a Letter of Intent with the city that would outline the terms of the deal and give him time to engage professional consultants.
In an interview, Baccari said he hadn’t considered the Tidewater site before the PawSox proposed to build a new ballpark nearby, at the Apex site. “I wasn’t looking at the land,” Baccari said.
If the ballpark financing doesn’t get approved, Baccari said he hasn’t determined whether he would proceed.
He’s looking at a project that would be in the area of $25 million to $50 million, he said, depending on what works. The site is appealing because of its proximity to the ballpark site, as well as the planned MBTA station to be sited on the Pawtucket/Central Falls line.
Of the proposed ballpark site, the current condition is now dominated by the “decrepit” Apex department store, he said, and would be difficult to work around. “It’s tough to make sites work around a site like that, if that’s the focal point,” he said.
A mechanism that would help the developments move forward, a tax increment financing district, is still in the city development phase, Grebien said. It has yet to be presented to the City Council. But city staff have identified a single TIF area that would include the Tidewater, ballpark and downtown sites, he said.
If authorized, this could redirect new taxes to a defined redevelopment district, helping provide financing for would-be developers who have expensive projects that otherwise would have a financing gap.
Without one, the Peregrine Group, based in East Providence, has so far unsuccessfully sought to redevelop another site near the proposed PawSox location, off Division Street. The mixed-use development it proposed has a financing gap that was too large to overcome without a committed office tenant, according to principal Colin Kane.
A request for state incentives was not approved, Kane said. “Right now, the math doesn’t work to build the building. It just doesn’t work. The gap was too big.”
Even with a PawSox stadium, he said, development teams will find challenges in making development feasible in the area. “There is legitimate interest,” he said, of developers in Pawtucket. “We love Pawtucket. We just bought a couple hundred apartments there. If they could truly change the dynamic, it takes a thoughtfully executed plan around an Apex-centered stadium.”
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
