Industrial National Trust (Superman Building) | Downtown | Providence

Details Announced: as previously announced, the building will have 285 units, 20% of which would be income controlled, up from 10% last year. The state will kick in $26 million - $20.7 million in Commerce RI / Rebuild RI state tax credits and grants for the project, plus $5.5 in RI Housing grants. The city of providence will kick in $15 Million, of which $5M is a grant and the rest is a $10M loan from the Providence Housing Trust, plus the previously sought tax stabilization agreement.

All in all, the developer seems to have gotten what they wanted a year ago: over $40M in state / local government money, plus ~ $24 million in federal tax credits.

www.wpri.com

RI leaders roll out $220 million plan to renovate ‘Superman’ building

Rhode Island’s tallest building has been empty and decaying in the heart of downtown for the past decade.
www.wpri.com www.wpri.com
 
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So $64M in fed/state/local funds for 57 affordable units? That seems like....a lot?
 
Rover said:
So $64M in fed/state/local funds for 57 affordable units? That seems like....a lot?
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The Globe's Buzzard Circling Over The Once-Mighty ProJo (i.e., its Rhode Island section) has a number of perspectives on this:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04...n-this-could-push-providence-into-bankruptcy/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04...ll-breathe-new-life-into-downtown-providence/

As always, different ways to look at this stuff--but I would argue that, even if a "public giveaway" such as this is inherently controversial, it is several orders of magnitude less grotesque (if one would even call it that) then, say, what happened in New York State recently. Those stadium giveaways are such scams. The Bills play there eight. times. a. year!!!

[end digressive rant]
 
I agree completely that it's less egregious than the Buffalo scam, but it's related. Developers go to struggling places and act like they have the taxpayers over a barrel. At 285 condo's paying approximately 300K+ on average you're looking at 100M in revenue, while I read the developer is putting up 24M. That's a pretty good ROI from my back of the envelope calculation.
 
Captured on a recent walk in Providence (10.17):

PVD Superman.JPG
 
#bancars said:
Captured on a recent walk in Providence (10.17):

View attachment 29663
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The original plan to develop the old Beaux-Arts Providence Journal Building (in forefront of photo) into a Hotel Hive have been dropped. The new strategy is to develop the property into mixed use with residential, retail, and coworking space units. The owners are looking to apply their previously approved tax credits to the new project. Under the original deal, the owners might be entitled to far more tax benefits as the property value would be much higher as a residential property than the originally intended hotel.


pbn.com

Developer ditches proposal for downtown Providence hotel, wants apartments instead

PROVIDENCE – The hotel part of the “Hotel Hive” project planned for downtown Providence is off the table. In its place, the developer wants to turn the former Providence Journal building into an apartment complex with retail and coworking space, and is asking the city for a new tax deal to do...
pbn.com pbn.com
 
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woah, awesome. was afraid this project was gonna die.
 
#bancars said:
Construction due to kick off this month:

www.bostonglobe.com

Construction on Providenceâs Superman building to begin âthis month,â owner says - The Boston Globe

The owner told the Globe that “no public dollars” are being used in the first phase of restoration of the state’s tallest building, which is expected to cost $25 million and last six to nine months.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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In an ideal world, this project completes, with residential/retail occupancy achieved, simultaneous with RIDOT's plan to relocate the transit hub from Kennedy Plaza... but now that this is underway, I suspect this will be done several years before the transformation of downtown's bus hub.
 
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