The Former Ocean State Steel site in East Providence is to be transformed into a mixed-use complex.
It is GeoNova Development Co.’s first project, and as the company says, it’s “a learning experience.”
Two years into the “East Pointe” redevelopment of the former Washburn Wire/Ocean State Steel site on East Providence’s Seekonk River waterfront, GeoNova has invested millions of dollars.
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Now it is waiting for final approval from the East Providence Waterfront Commission for its proposed 27-acre mixed-use development, as well as for action on a request to drop the percentage of affordable housing being built from the state-mandated 10 percent to 5 percent.
The developer envisions a village that includes 495 townhouses and apartments, 30,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, 45,000 square feet of office/commercial space and about 1,300 parking spaces, in addition to a public park, a public walkway along the water, a dock, and eventually a 150-slip marina.
Despite the challenges, the company is not worried about approval of its $200 million investment. It has worked closely with city planners to create a plan in compliance with the city’s guidelines for developing the 500-acre waterfront district, said Mary Voce, executive vice president and director of GeoNova.
Nor is it worried about the number of affordable housing units it will be expected to build.
“We’ll have to accommodate whatever is approved,” she said.
More important to Voce and her colleagues is the experience they have gained cleaning up the contaminated site. The New York-based company was formed in 1999 with the mission to acquire, remediate and redevelop brownfields using a patented technology called a molecular bonding system, which “neutralizes hazardous metals in soil” so they cannot leach into ground water, Voce said.
The technology, first used commercially in 1995, is owned by Solucorp Industries, a Canadian company, and “we have an exclusive license to use it for redevelopment projects,” Voce said.
It’s taken this long to get the first project started, she said, because “it took a long time to find the right place” where GeoNova could use the technology for remediation. It also took time to get financing.
A $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a $3 million low-interest HUD loan obtained by the city helped fund the two-year remediation, which is now complete. Voce said the she had hoped the construction would have begun by now. But “it took longer than expected to do the remediation,” she said, and at about $10 million, it has cost double what GeoNova expected.
It is for that reason that the company has asked to drop the affordable-housing percentage. “We didn’t appreciate the total cost [of remediation],” she said.
The first phase of construction, assuming the plans are approved, calls for about 144 housing units, and if all goes well, should be complete by the end of next year. The office/commercial space will be built during the second phase. In total, the project is expected to generate an estimated $3 million in tax revenue for East Providence per year.
If the project stays on schedule, it should be complete in six years, Voce said. But a lot depends on just how fast the pieces get sold. With each new phase the company will be paying attention to the real estate market, she said. If people aren’t buying, GeoNova might delay building until the market improves.
In the meantime, the city waterfront commission’s design review committee is analyzing the proposed New England-style village, said Patrick A. Rogers, chairman of the commission.
Independent traffic and financial advisers are “making sure the numbers hold together,” he said. “You can’t rely just on the numbers a developer gives. You have to test and confirm them.”
Rogers said he’s not sure whether the design review committee will ask that the developer change its proposed plans.
One thing that is not likely to happen, though, is approval of GeoNova’s request to reduce the development of affordable housing, he said. “The waterfront commission has almost no flexibility in this matter. … We’re going to follow what the law dictates.”
Rogers said the GeoNova project is “the largest waterfront project and the most complicated probably in the city’s history, given the environmental complication.” No other site in the waterfront district has contamination as extensive as the GeoNova site had.
During remediation, the company removed about 35,000 tons of contaminated soils, all of which were treated and taken to state landfills, Voce said. The remaining soil was treated using the technology GeoNova has a license to use.
In addition to having to clear the land of an existing structure, “we found a big oil bunker that nobody knew was there,” Voce said. And they found cement trenches used to transport oil underground.
“We did a very thorough job of cleaning,” she said. “Others take contamination and cap it over. We didn’t want to do that. We really wanted to clean up the site.”
GeoNova’s cleanup resulted in East Providence winning the 2005 Brownfields Project of the Year Award from the Environmental Business Council of New England, for its assistance in finding funding for the remediation. The council called it “one of the largest environmental cleanups in Rhode Island history.”
Despite the help, “it’s a very expensive piece of land,” Voce said. “There’s no infrastructure there … no roads, no sewers, no electrical lines.”
GeoNova also must submit its plans to the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council for approval. Part of gaining approval from those bodies requires bringing in tons of soil to raise the floodplain.
Asked why GeoNova chose such an expensive site, Voce replied: “There are so many urban areas where there are derelict buildings and land. That’s what should be developed. With commuting as bad as it is, it makes more sense for people to live in an urban area.”
