Although the current plan for seven mill buildings in Eagle Square represents a significant departure from the one-story strip mall proposed a year ago to the Providence Plan Commission, some interested observers say the departure is not significant enough.
The plan, submitted by New York-based Feldco, which is part of an entity known as New England Expedition-Providence, LLC, was approved last month by a 4-to-3 vote of the Providence Plan Commission.
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State Rep. Steven M. Costantino (D-Providence) spoke at a press conference last month in the office of Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr.
“This represents what the art of compromise is all about,” he said. “You had a community here that was in desperate need of a supermarket. I think when you have a passion for the type of need a community is asking for, and you have passion for preservation, something has to go. And something had to develop because passion leads to a project that I think is going to be one in the city of Providence that all of the businesses can be proud of. Other developments will look toward us for mill development.”
The revised $31 million plan incorporates four of the existing seven buildings into the project. A year ago the project was estimated to cost $25 million with a plan to raze all seven buildings. In addition to reusing four of the buildings, which include the former home of Uncas Mfg. and the Crawford Seed Building, the new buildings will be designed to complement the older structures.
Cianci praised the developers’ change of plans.
“This development has been controversial, as the original plans called for the razing of the historic mill buildings on the site and replacing them with a complex of single story, split-face brick buildings, facing Eagle Street and Atwells Avenue,” he said. “I had numerous concerns about those plans, including the loss of the buildings, the presence of a massive parking area, the mix of the proposed tenants and making the project adequately respond to the needs of the neighborhoodThis reconfigured and massive project better responds to the needs of the neighborhood, to the aesthetics of the area, and is one that will lead to the revitalization of this section of the city,” said Cianci.
Opponents assert that massive does not necessarily mean better.
“The trouble with Feldco’s plan is if the market changes what we’re left with is a bunch of buildings that are totally unreusable and others that are knocked down,” said Raphael Lyon, a member of Citizens for an Urban Development at Eagle Square and the Providence Mill Building Association.
Lyon also objected to the notion that the developer was saving four mill buildings.
“Every building they’re saving is a portion of a larger building,” he said. “If you do the numbers they’re demolishing 75 percent of the site, with no commitment they’ll fully develop the other 25 percent.”
Gene Beaudoin, a partner with the New England Expedition, assures Rhode Islanders the project will be built the way the project has been proposed.
“I don’t know where that idea comes from that we wouldn’t,” he said. “Because the reality is that every project that Barry (Feldman, also a partner) and I have worked on has been built exactly the way it was approved.”
“The other part of the answer is that some folks may not realize that ultimately the (city) building department has to give you a certificate of occupancy, which has to be in compliance with the plans that were approved,” said Beaudoin.
Catherine Horsey, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, was not surprised by the controversy surrounding the proposal.
“Many people feel that plan is not the very best plan for the neighborhood and for the site,” she said. “The Preservation Society has offered its conditional support, but there is a long list of conditions.”
The conditions include that the four preserved buildings be included as landmark mill buildings, and that designated representatives from the preservation community get to review the plans at certain junctures.
“It’s an attempt to assure that what is presented now is what actually gets built,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for a developer to run out of money and change the plans.”
Cianci offered to have the city borrow $4 million to prepare the upper floors of the old buildings, which would be paid back with a new tax revenue from the development.
Jennifer Cole-Steele, co-founder of the Federal Hill/Broadway Initiative and also a member of the Citizens for an Urban Development at Eagle Square, said she is concerned about what economic development means in that area.
“When you tie economic development with low-end retail, unless it’s local the money comes into the store and oftentimes goes out to the company headquarters in Texas or California,” she said. “And the jobs really don’t pay enough for people to be able to live. Very few are full-time with benefits.”
Cole-Steele is concerned about the final outcome of the project.
“We’re proceeding cautiously,” she said. “Yes it’s a better plan, but is it the best plan? Absolutely not.”
