Pedestrians on West Exchange Street will appear the size of ants. The State House’s famed dome will appear at nearly equal elevation. And on summer nights, WaterFire torches will illuminate the contours of the Providence River.
These are to be the vistas from the top balconies of the second tower of The Westin Providence hotel, which the owner, The Procaccianti Group of Cranston, recently got the go-ahead for from the Capital Center Commission to begin building later this summer.
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Plans are for a 31-story tower with 200 hotel rooms and 103 condominiums. Though there are about 1,200 residential units already planned for construction downtown over the next five years, the Westin’s second tower will be the city’s first to be attached to a hotel.
“What makes our project significantly different than any other is that we are associated with a hotel,” said Michael A. Voccola, Procaccianti’s legal and administrative corporate vice president, “and having a condo at The Westin would provide the resident … with access to every hotel service and amenity that a guest at the hotel would have.”
Residents will have access to hotel concierge services, housekeeping and food and beverage staff for cocktail parties in their homes, Voccola said. “You will feel like a guest at your own house every day, and I can’t imagine anything better than that.”
Condo sales begin in September, and units will range from $400,000 to more than $1 million.
Plans are to begin site work for the tower in late August, with an official groundbreaking set for Sept. 8. With the future GTECH headquarters under construction across the street and luxury condominiums at 110 Westminster St. slated to break ground in August, the din of construction downtown looks to be getting louder in the coming months.
At 360 feet tall, the new tower will rise 70 feet above the existing hotel. Its first floor will have three retail spaces and a condominium lobby. Occupying the retail spaces will be an undisclosed restaurant, national coffee company and a jewelry store.
Above the first floor will be five levels of parking reserved for condo owners. Hotel guests will continue parking in the convention center lot. The next eight floors will house the 200 hotel rooms, which the firm committed to build as part of the $95.5 million hotel purchase agreement with the state earlier this year. Part of the deal also stipulates that the hotels must be available by June 2007.
The state wanted The Westin to increase its number of rooms from 364 to 564 so the convention center could attract and book larger conferences, which require more rooms in a single hotel, Voccola explained.
“So we’re confident that having more upscale rooms that are attached to a known brand like The Westin, and attached to the convention center, will work for the benefit of all,” he added.
Procaccianti has received financing for the $80-million project from the Boston branch of Anglo Irish Bank, which has backed past real estate ventures for the firm.
The developer plans to make the construction project as agreeable as possible to hotel guests. Surrounding the site will be a 16-foot wall with a covered pedestrian walkway, finished white walls, lighting and 8-foot-tall images of the completed tower.
“That type of construction encompassment has never been done in this town,” Voccola said.
“You won’t see a lot of bulldozers and smoke, what you will see is a finished, white, well-illuminated, well-maintained wall that has beautiful graphics that create an air of excitement.”
Boston architects Jung-Brannen Associates Inc. designed the tower to “look as though it was designed at the same time as the existing buildings,” Voccola said. The design differs in that it features a pre-cast concrete face and balconies. Yet its green roof matches the present hotel tower, and its brick corners are the same as the present buildings. “We wanted the buildings to look related as siblings, but not as twins,” he added.
On the same block that also consists of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and convention center, Procaccianti is in the midst of an 18-month project to convert the Holiday Inn Providence at 21 Atwells Ave. into a more upscale Hilton hotel. The two hotels will anchor what the firm calls the city’s “Power Block,” Voccola said. The Hilton will also feature a restaurant, but the firm declined to release details.
“I would tell you that I think (the new Westin tower) is the most exciting project going on in the city right now,” Voccola said, “and that’s saying something given GTECH, Waterplace and 110 Westminster.”
