NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Unfinished projects and Pawtucket history? Revisit all over!

Mar 23, 2009

See more at the Pawtucket History Research Center thru the Pawtucket Library staff.


PAWTUCKET -- The 1960s was the age of urban renewal, when what was old was too often unrespected; what was new was seen as good just because it was new (and came with federal dollars); and venerable neighborhoods, such as where the Pawtucket S-curve is now, were cleared out for highways.


Now just look how times have changed.


In more recent years, the city has turned for its revival to the old Pawtucket that didn?’t fall to the developers?’ bulldozers, a property buyer?’s bargain outlet driven by its strategically spot between skyrocketing commercial and residential prices from Providence to greater Boston.

More than a decade ago, the former Peerless building was almost the only redevelopment game in the greater downtown when the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency worked to rehab the former retail space for offices.

Later came entrepreneurs like Rudi D?’Agostino, siting a music complex in a neglected redbrick mill building on neglected Montgomery Street just up from the post office.

Then Rick Roth, who moved his quality T-shirt printing business from Cambridge, Mass., to a venerable brick building that for decades housed a printing shop.

That was the vanguard. Then the city set up a 300-acre Arts & Entertainment District to attract artists, just in time for the trend that saw old buildings, particularly old mills, became not just desirable, but fashionable as well.

In recent years, artists and professionals have moved into the former Schaffer Furniture building on Broad Street, the Lebanon Mill (now Riverfront Lofts) across the river from City Hall, and a marble-faced former bank building on Main Street, to name a few.

Meanwhile the Pawtucket Armory building began undergoing a transformation to an arts complex and, come fall, what will be the state?’s first public arts high school.

But not every development attempt has succeeded.

It?’s been three years since the Silver Top diner, among much fanfare, was towed to a PRA-owned site on Middle Street, where it still sits under a blue tarp.

Attempts by the City Council and Doyle administration to get a hotel complex built on the former car dealership site off Division Street have stalled for more than a year. Friday, Council President Donald Grebien said there was no new progress to report with chosen developer Carpionato Properties and if a deal can?’t be finalized by next month, the process could move back to start for the second time in less than two years.

Broken pipes ultimately led to the state cancelling its lease at 286 Main St., the former Attleboro-Pawtucket Savings Bank building, for Registry of Motor Vehicles headquarters.

The state, which moved the Registry there in 1993, struck a later deal with building owner Louis Yip then canceled it, citing non-performance issues that Yip has denied in his counterclaim to the state?’s breach of contract suit.

Meanwhile the state moved the Registry to the Apex department store building at 100 Main St. --paying about double the rent it once paid Yip -- and has just put out a permanent location proposal for a second bid.

Lease terms were changed from five to 10 years after bids (including by Apex owner Andrew Gates) apparently came in disappointingly high, possibly due to the need to quickly recoup construction costs over such a short term.

Now, school officials have their eye on leasing or buying Yip?’s building to house various programs and school administrators.

So the city and its downtown, soon to get a Madhouse Caf?© (spinoff of Narragansett?’s Crazy Burger) in the old Newport Creamery site, and which could see other changes if Pawtucket Mutual Insurance Co. is sold and its Main Street and Maple Street buildings attract buyers (the Music School of the R.I. Philharmonic is one interested potential tenant), remains hot.

"Absolutely. The level of interest, particularly in the downtown area, has surged dramatically the last few years," said Michael Cassidy, city planning and redevelopment director.

As for the Silver Top, Cassidy said there?’s cause for optimism.

The PRA, for about $2,000, hired consultant Commonweal Collaborative to assist diner owner Patricia Brown with a business plan, to help her qualify for the extensive financing needed to add a kitchen and other improvements onto the diner.

Cassidy said PRA would also assist with preparing the land and combining lots it owns there with city-owned lots.

When the council balked at granting Brown a 24-hour license, "she spent probably six months or more" looking for other possible sites, to no avail. "Then we went and did the design work," said Cassidy. "She paid for it, we paid for the (preliminary) site work."

But when the project was put out to bid, "nobody bid," Cassidy said. "It?’s very expensive, at least according to the people who shared their rough estimates with us," in part because of the site?’s steep rear dropoff.

Once the business plan is done, Brown will be able to apply for bank financing. "I?’m hoping to have that next week," Cassidy said.

Thus far, the diner has been parked free (as PRA owns the land) and does not pay other taxes because it?’s not in operation, Cassidy said.

But for every recent flop the greater downtown has several successes to show, though some remain works in progress.

Antiques dealer Richard Kazarian spent a half-million dollars renovating the former U-Pic shoe store on lower Montgomery Street, to be featured in a national architectural magazine. It?’s been almost a year since he bought the former Elks Building on Main Street, which the organization must soon vacate, and restaurant and other reuse proposals have yet to gain traction.

Across from D?’Agostino?’s music complex, artists Gretchen Dow Simpson and Mimo Reilly recently teamed with architect Raynor Warner to buy 75-81 Mongtomery St.

On a much larger scale, a Los Angeles-based developer has an option to buy the 550,000 square foot former Hope Webbing mill at 1005 Main St., which it wants to rehab for woodworkers, industrial arts and crafts, commercial sale space and artist loft and live-work spaces in what would be a $20-$25 million project.

At a standstill for now is the former train depot property on Broad Street, which the City Council on a tie vote rejected taking by eminent domain while refusing would-be developer SMPO Properties?’ request to rezone the only residential portion for commercial. Opponents fear SMPO would tear down the depot and favor a competing plan to save it by the Pawtucket Foundation.

Though PRA failed narrowly on the land-taking vote, "We?’re not going back to eminent domain for the train station in the near future," Cassidy said. "That?’s not my read. I think it would be 4-4 again if we went back in."

One continuing redevelopment success is the 105-year-old Armory.

The relocated Gamm Theatre opened, after an $850,000 renovation, in its annex space 16 months ago to continuing good reviews.

The castle turret will house the new arts high school come fall, part of a $4 million phase -- with work to start next month -- in the $7.5 million project.

Two or three years down the line, said Seth Handy of the nonprofit Armory Association, will see rehab of the drill hall for a larger Gamm space as well as space for artist tenants.

Handy said the "huge amount of energy" artistic director Tony Estrella has injected into the Gamm, and the professional approach brought by business manager Yvonne Seggerman, bode well for the theater?’s future.

Steve Kumins, hired last May 2006, as executive director for the Arts Exchange facility, said crucial help from the mayor?’s office and council to other city officials has made his job easier. "You name it, they?’ve been very approachable and helpful," he said.

With new construction to start next month after building and fire permits are approved, Kumins said the arts high school will go quickly go from concept to public notice.

"We know that it?’s really important to see the construction trucks and the scaffolding. And in the fall, they?’ll see the student activity," he said.



?©The Pawtucket Times 2005