A Warwick-based developer is discussing plans to build 225 single-family houses at Rocky Point, Mayor Scott Avedisian said last week, but the U.S. Small Business Administration, which controls the 126-acre parcel, says four potential developers are still looking at the site.
Mark Hayward, SBA district director, said the agency “has not signed with anybody,” and “talks continue” with the four parties.
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He wouldn’t say whether the developer Avedisian mentioned – Nicholas Cambio of Universal Properties Group – was one of the four. “I’ve not mentioned any names to anybody,” Hayward said.
Cambio did not return calls seeking comment.
Avedisian said the city’s conversations with Cambio have involved how best to provide for both public and private uses of the land. Last month, the Warwick City Council authorized spending $800,000 toward the purchase of 41 acres of waterfront land at Rocky Point. The total cost of the deal is $4.4 million, including a federal grant for $2.2 million.
The city has to complete the deal soon because the grant, already extended, is set to expire Sept. 30. Although the eventual developer wouldn’t own a stake in the shoreline property, Avedisian said the city still wants to make sure both parties’ plans are compatible.
The development rights for the $18.9 million parcel will eventually be granted by the U.S. District Court. Avedisian noted that “we have to go in with the developer, because the court isn’t going to look at our contract without looking at that one, too. So we all have to be together on this. It certainly adds a whole series of issues to the table.”
The mayor said he’s confident the deal will go through and be good for the city.
“We’re very excited to have 41 acres of shoreline preserved, a whole mile of shoreline that’s going to be in the public domain. So we’re very excited about this,” Avedisian said.
If the city does purchase the 41 acres, the mayor said, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management will be granted a conservation easement on that mile-long coastline property and only low-impact development – parking lots and walking paths – will be allowed.
But Hayward emphasized that the final decision – when a developer is picked and the city, developer and SBA can agree on the parcel’s future – will be in the hands of a judge. “Regardless of what we do, whatever decision is made, we have to go back to the federal District Court,” he said. •
