If the final plans for a new Sierra Suites hotel are filed this month – as city planners expect – the demolition of 143 Washington St. could begin, pending the city’s building permit process, within a few months.
A 161-room, 11-floor extended-stay hotel is slated to replace the 92-year-old building, which has been fully vacated. The property belongs to Civic Center Parking Associates LLC, which also owns and operates the adjacent Civic Center Garage and, during 2003, purchased 132 Fountain St. – the former MacDonald’s – which is set to be razed for the same project.
The developer is Kansas-based LodgeWorks LP, which did not respond to an interview request for this story.
In early 2006, when the original plans were revealed, leaders of the Providence Preservation Society, city planners and many others weren’t happy with what they saw. Not only was a building being razed, but its proposed replacement, they felt, didn’t fit in.
“When they first rolled out the design of the project, it didn’t bear any resemblance to the type of building that would be designed and built in Providence,” said Jack Gold, executive director of the Preservation Society. “It was an out-of-state firm, and the developers were kind enough to review it with us. I think what they’ve come up with is a compromise.”
The society didn’t review the plans in-house, but Gold commented on architectural points at Downcity Design Review Committee meetings. Originally, the fenestration types, window-scale and other design aspects were poorly aligned with details of historic Washington Street buildings, he said.
The design has since evolved to a point that, although it’s not exactly what the society would like, it is better than the design of most hotel chains, Gold said. “It’s better than what we originally saw.”
And by all indications, the project is moving forward now. Bill Wise, president and CEO of Intown Parking Inc., which runs a 7,600-square-foot parking lot between the building and Beverly Street, said that “the designers are, to my knowledge, getting ready to go.”
“The surface lot that we run down here will be going by the wayside,” Wise said.
Originally, LodgeWorks designers had wanted the city to abandon that block of Beverly Street, which is very narrow, and link the hotel directly with the garage. That idea, though, has been thrown out. Now, a bridge will connect the hotel and adjacent garage, said Thomas E. Deller, head of planning for the city.
The building’s storefront tenants – Talk of the Town, New Japan Restaurant and Cuban Revolution – started an exodus in early 2006, after the building’s Nov. 2, 2005, sale.
Cuban Revolution got out first, relocating to Aborn Street and since expanding to another location on Valley Street. Talk of the Town had its final night on Oct. 31, and it’s now preparing to move to a 1,103-square-foot space at 529 Atwells Ave. – overlooking Eagle Square.
But New Japan Restaurant’s owner, Yukin Hixama, won’t be re-opening his restaurant in Providence, according to Wise. The owner looked at other locations, but the costs involved with opening a restaurant in Providence are on the rise, and there wasn’t a high likelihood of attracting a new customer base, Wise said.
Gold, of the Preservation Society, said that the past few years have brought significant and positive changes to the overall feel of Washington Street. Although a historic building has to come down for the construction, he said Washington Street community will likely benefit from the new hotel.
“It will be contributing to the vitality and change that the neighborhood, with the AS220 project at the Dreyfus Hotel, has seen over the last few years,” he said. •
