PROVIDENCE – A $52 million project that will place a six-story building on a city block downtown has entered the pre-construction phase, with the demolition of a small building on Fountain Street.
The Nightingale will be new construction of a mixed-use building by Providence-based Cornish Associates LP and Burlington, Mass.-based Nordblom Co.
The same partners combined efforts recently to purchase and redevelop The Providence Journal Building.
The new project, at 78 Fountain St., is a $52 million project that has received $6 million in state economic development incentives through the Rebuild Rhode Island program, according to the R.I. Commerce Corp.
Updated plans show that the project will involve 143 market-rate apartments and a base floor of commercial space, to include potential space for a nearly 7,500-square-foot grocery store and a restaurant.
The building will have ground level parking behind the building.
The project will take up a city block between Fountain and Washington streets, bounded by Matthewson. The property is now a surface parking lot. The small, vacant brick building that once held the Coffee King was razed this week.
Its name, The Nightingale, is derived from a historical use for the property, according to Cornish managing director Arnold B. “Buff” Chace Jr.
The area once was home to the Nightingale Iron Works, he said. “I was looking through old property maps. We saw that name and it just stuck with us.”
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
