195 Providence Innovation & Design District

Interested to see what will come out of the parcel 2 RFP they put out not long ago. 6 and 28 and the one the hotel is on are going gangbusters - looks to be anyway.
 
Future progress on Parcel 6 construction should jump start the development of the remaining parcels on the eastern side of the river, especially if the rumored ground floor tenant is Trader Joe's.
 
The completed Chestnut Commons:
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The Wickenden Street Parcel 6 construction site. This is the residential building with a large ground level 13,000 sf market space that is rumored to be Trader Joe's.
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Parcel 6 architectural rendering:
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Parcel 6 link:
 
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I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinion on what this sale might mean for the future of the 195 district.



This building was originally proposed for and approved to be student housing for Brown med and URI/RIC nursing students that attend instruction and labs in the surrounding buildings. The developer changed course two years ago when they saw there was some demand from non students who wanted to live downtown on the river with a view of a marina. With the competition from the nearby Chestnut Commons and future Emblem 125 (under construction) intensifying, the developers probably decided to sell while its value was still high. They look to have made a tidy $20M+ profit selling it at $75M given its construction estimate of $62M got netted down to $53M with tax incentives of some $9M.

 
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As the state considers construction of a new RIDOH lab on Parcel 25, I decided to dig up some old (highly speculative) renderings and diagrams of what 225 Dyer would look like as part of a collection of other, similarly modern office and lab buildings.
 

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Construction update on the Wickenden Street Parcel 6 construction site. This will be a residential building with a indoor parking garage and a large ground level 13,000 sf market space that is rumored to be Trader Joe's. The recently opened new construction South Water Street residential building is visible behind it.
20211031_142733.jpg
 
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Emblem 125 at 125 Clifford Street in Providence building progress update from a vantage point which shows the mass of this project. It will be 256,000 square feet, the nearly $90 million development will include 248 residential units, 22,700 square feet of ground floor retail space among other lobby amenity areas and 1,800 square feet of rooftop space.

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On a fine weekend afternoon, it is hard to convey, to those who haven't experienced it live, how delightful it is to walk across the still-relatively-new PVD pedestrian bridge here and take this all in.

Usually, when the phrase "knitting together the urban fabric" is deployed, it is done in a very trite, shallow, cynical way. But in this case, it is wholly justified. You feel you are encompassing all of Providence's urbanity, in just one short span...
 
On a fine weekend afternoon, it is hard to convey, to those who haven't experienced it live, how delightful it is to walk across the still-relatively-new PVD pedestrian bridge here and take this all in.

Usually, when the phrase "knitting together the urban fabric" is deployed, it is done in a very trite, shallow, cynical way. But in this case, it is wholly justified. You feel you are encompassing all of Providence's urbanity, in just one short span...

It really is a great bridge
 
An RFP has been released by the RI Commerce Corp for a new building housing private labs (min. 25,000 ft2) as well as the RIDOH state health laboratory (~80,000 ft2). Parcel 25 Lot 3 has been set aside for the project, though developers can propose constructing the lab on a parcel they own or alternate public site. The first phase of responses to the RFP are due December 10.

 
I'm not in love with this design and it is a little out of scale compared to the residential neighborhood adjacent to it. But it is on the edge of downtown and it's a vital parcel along the riverfront. So it deserves something significant. I'm just not convinced this particular design is "it."

This is the parcel, for anyone who is unsure of where it is: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.819...=341.6909&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192 - right next to Plant City.
 

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