Village at South County Commons.
(Tom Croke)
Commercial and industrial projects continue to spring up in South County as developers are drawn to the area’s abundance of developable land and proximity to highway corridors.
One of the area’s most controversial projects, the Village at South County Commons in South Kingstown, is finally under way after years of debate and court battles. Warwick-based North Colony Realty LLC, developer of the 84-acre site along Route 1, has begun preliminary work on the project, according to South Kingstown Director of Planning Anthony Lachowicz.
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Plans for the site include an Applebee’s restaurant, an eight-screen movie complex, a 161-unit assisted-living center and an apartment building. A mix of retail, office and light industrial space, as well as additional apartments, also is planned, although the timeline for the projects is unclear.
The developer earlier this month began clearing some vegetation and stone walls at the site, although no grading has taken place, Lachowicz said. Alex Petrucci, developer of the Village at South County, could not be reached for comment.
The town granted North Colony final approval for the project in March, Lachowicz said. A ruling by a Rhode Island Superior Court in February paved the way for the project to move forward. The decision upheld an earlier ruling by South Kingstown’s planning board of appeals, which had OK’d the development.
The developer has approval to build on 46 acres of the overall site. Plans for the balance of the property have not been submitted, Lachowicz said.
In North Kingstown, plans for several industrial projects slated for the Kiefer Park area of Quonset Davisville Commerce Park are “under active review,” according to John J. Aubin, senior planner.
Two proposals have been submitted for the construction of electrical manufacturing facilities: German manufacturer Seifert mtm Systems will build a total of 57,000 square feet of manufacturing space in three phases, while Warwick-based Cal-Greg Electronics has plans for a 14,900 square-foot manufacturing facility.
Also in Kiefer Park, Dominion Diagnostics of Warwick is set to build 50,000 square feet of lab space. That project will be built in three phases. Concept Warehouse Co. has plans for a 120,000 square-foot warehouse on a 10-acre site in the Commerce Park area of Quonset, according to Aubin.
A new Home Depot on Route 102 in North Kingstown is set to open by July, Aubin said.
In Richmond, town officials expect Richmond Sand & Gravel to apply soon for master-plan approval of a 550-acre, mixed-use development at Stilson Road and Route 138, town planner Joe Lombardo said. Possible uses include a corporate campus, a hotel, residential and light-industrial development.
Plans for construction of a new Home Depot in Westerly should go before the town’s planning board this month, said Lombardo, who also is a part-time planner for Westerly. The proposed site for the store is on Route 78 at Route 1.
In Narragansett, developer Salt Pond LLC has proposed plans to fill out the remainder of space at the Salt Pond Shopping Center, according to Town Planner Clarkson A. Collins. About 9,600 square feet of retail space and 5,000 square-feet of restaurant space has been proposed for the shopping center at South Pier Road and Woodruff Avenue.
A few small commercial projects are planned in Exeter, according to Scott Millar, chairman of the town’s planning board. Along Route 2, just south of the former Ladd School, developers are set to build an office park and gas station on the former Harbor Shellfish site, Millar said.
The 30-plus acre property, which once housed a shellfish-processing plant, has been abandoned since the early 1980s. Developers likely will propose additional multi-use plans for the site, Millar said.
Also in Exeter, development has continued along Route 3, which has seen a number of small commercial and light-industrial projects pop up in recent years. The latest plan is for a storage facility for a construction business, Millar said.
