PROVIDENCE – The city’s Capital Center Commission was established in 1981 to lead the massive transformation of what was once a 70-acre wasteland between the old train station downtown and the Statehouse.
Now the
quasi-public commission may disappear after more than 40 years of overseeing the design and development of what became a key part of Providence's so-called renaissance. City and state leaders say the panel's work has run its course.
Near the top of the commission's Feb. 19 meeting agenda: Dissolution.
Commission members are being asked to support a resolution endorsing the group's demise.
“With most development in the district completed, declining proposals, outdated regulations and financial inefficiencies, the need for the CCC [Capital Center Commission] has diminished,” Michaela Antunes, spokesperson for Mayor Brett P. Smiley, said in a statement.
Since 2009, the city’s Department of Planning and Development has managed the commission’s responsibilities and planned for its dissolution, Antunes said. Also, plans to shift the Capital Center Commission’s responsibilities to the city’s Downtown Design Review Committee, which oversees development in all of downtown, have been in the works for years.
“The Planning Department has been talking about this for years and added it to the Comprehensive Plan that was developed over a two-year span and adopted late last year,” Antunes said. “The city is now moving forward with implementing the plan.”
When the commission was formed in the early 1980s, the Capital Center area was largely covered in railroad tracks and parking lots.
Since then, the Capital Center has seen the construction of more than 1.2 million square feet of retail space, 1 million square feet of office space, more than 1,000 hotel rooms and guest suites, 765 residential units, 7,800 parking spaces, more than 6,900 permanent jobs and more than $1 billion in private development, according to the R.I. Office of Budget Management.
By 1994, there was a dramatic expansion of open public space and two rivers in the area were relocated making way for riverwalks along with restaurants and retail space, an amphitheater and pedestrian bridges. Train tracks had been relocated, too.
The Capital Center spans from the Rhode Island Credit Union, Renaissance Providence Downtown Hotel – formerly the Masonic Temple – and Veterans Memorial Auditorium on the northern boundaries to the old Union Station along Exchange Terrace to the south. The center includes Providence Place, the Providence train station and a dozen or so other buildings that have been constructed in recent decades.
The commission oversees design and development standards in a district, and some of the last high-profile projects it OK'd included the Track 15 food hall at Union Station in 2022 and the Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chão in a prominent street-level space at Providence Place mall in 2023.
Consolidating the design review process by eliminating the Capital Center Commission will allow for a more consistent policy framework and is a move that’s supported by city leaders, according to Providence’s 2024 Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in November. Exactly how dissolving the commission will affect properties with uncertain futures, such as the Providence Place mall that was placed into receivership in November 2024, is unclear.
Because the commission was created with both state and city approval, legislation at both of those levels will need to pass to dissolve the commission.
Rep. Anthony DeSimone, D-Providence, introduced a bill into the General Assembly repealing the commission’s enabling legislation. The bill has been referred to the House Municipal Government & Housing. DeSimone did not respond to Providence Business News’ request for comment.
Also, City Council President Rachel Miller introduced an almost identical ordinance on Feb. 6 at the request of Mayor Brett P. Smiley, said council spokesperson Roxie Richner. Miller’s proposal was referred to the Committee on Ordinances.
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You can reach her at Castellani@pbn.com
