Rhode Island
R.I. developer proposes 30-story apartment building next to Amica Mutual Pavilion – The Boston Globe
![R.I. developer proposes 30-story apartment building next to Amica Mutual Pavilion – The Boston Globe R.I. developer proposes 30-story apartment building next to Amica Mutual Pavilion – The Boston Globe](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/kcC-eT6n260YeBE184yPXeHJXxw=/506x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/YXV3NSTZGNCFXGATJXK4TZFLF4.png)
PROVIDENCE — A local real estate firm is proposing a 30-story apartment tower next to the Hilton hotel on Atwells Avenue — a project that has been nearly two decades in the making.
PRI I LP, a firm that also owns the Hilton hotel, submitted preliminary plans to the city to demolish the hotel’s parking garage and a one-story function room attached to the building in order to construct a residential building with 216 units with an eight-story podium parking deck with 248 spaces.
The hotel building at 21 Atwells Ave., which was formerly the Holiday Inn, is not part of the new construction, according to the plans. First constructed in 1966, the former Holiday Inn was the first new hotel in Providence since the Biltmore (now known as the Graduate Providence Hotel) was built in 1922.
According to PRI I’s plans, the apartments would consist of a mix of 18 studio, 108 one-bedroom units, 82 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom units, according to plans unveiled during a Downtown Design Review Committee meeting on Monday night. The committee approved the preliminary plan stage of review for new construction; final plans will need to be submitted to the city for review and approval.
PRI I is a subsidiary of The Procaccianti Group, a Cranston-based real estate investment and management company. The company has been involved in the development of several key properties around the state, including the new Neon Marketplaces and the Renaissance Providence Hotel. In the plans, PRI I has dubbed the proposed building as the “TPG Tower.”
If PRI I’s plans become reality, the tower would stand more than 300 feet above Atwells Avenue, and 326 feet above the dead-end street that connects the hotel with the Amica Mutual Pavilion. It would also become a prominent piece of Providence’s skyline along Interstate 95.
This isn’t the first time Procaccianti has proposed a residential tower at the site.
Around 2005, Procaccianti had proposed “The Power Block,” a nearly $1 billion real estate investment that reached from the former Westin Hotel (now the Omni Providence Hotel), past the Rhode Island Convention Center and the AMP, and up to what is now the Hilton hotel. At the time, Procaccianti executives said the “power block” would connect a corridor of shops, restaurants, hotels, and event spaces in order to attract large conventions to Providence.
Of that hefty proposal, $150 million would go to renovating the Holiday Inn to become a Hilton, add a nationally-known steak restaurant and coffee shop, and to construct a 27-story tower with 150 condominiums. Procaccianti did renovate the hotel around 2006 and added a Starbucks store on the ground floor. The Vig, a sports bar, currently serves burgers and wings in the hotel’s lobby. But the residential tower was never constructed.
![The current project site for the proposed residential tower at 21 Atwells Ave. in Providence, R.I.](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/mc1Ft1j5dK0M-5zYmJHRiIkQ54k=/960x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/BE222IHBYFB6LCYMIREK6SQIRI.png)
Both of the existing structures that would be demolished were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s and do not have any historical significance. The company also deemed that rehabilitation or adaption of the structures was “infeasible.”
“Given the housing shortage in the Providence area, the residential component was more viable than commercial, retail, or other types of uses,” wrote Ron M. Hadar, Procaccianti’s general counsel, in the plans filed to the city.
It’s not yet clear when the company plans to begin the demolition. Ralph Izzi, Procaccianti’s vice president of public affairs, said the firm is still in its pre-development phase. In an email to the Globe on Monday night, he declined to say what the project will cost.
“Safe to say this will be one of the most substantial developments in the last 50 years in downtown Providence since we built the 32-story residential (The Residences Providence) tower in 2007, which — at the time — was the tallest high rise built in the prior 34 years,” said Izzi.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
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Rhode Island
Coach bringing NBA trophy to Rhode Island
![Coach bringing NBA trophy to Rhode Island Coach bringing NBA trophy to Rhode Island](https://turnto10.com/resources/media2/16x9/1612/986/0x29/90/75e3145a-5f81-4c1f-a8d8-e12a129a5085-JM3.png)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — The coach of the NBA champion Boston Celtics is bringing the Larry O’Brien Trophy to the Ocean State.
According to a tweet from Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, Coach Joe Mazzulla will be at the State House on Tuesday morning at 10:00.
Mazzulla, a Johnston native, was a standout playing basketball for Bishop Hendricken High School, where he graduated in 2006.
The Celtics won their 18th NBA title by beating the Dallas Mavericks, four games to one in the championship round.
The win came at home in Boston’s TD Garden, on June 17 – or 6/17, in the heart of the 617 area code.
Rhode Island
Taylor Swift in RI; Atlantic Mills sale; rebuilding Republicans: Top stories this week
![Taylor Swift in RI; Atlantic Mills sale; rebuilding Republicans: Top stories this week Taylor Swift in RI; Atlantic Mills sale; rebuilding Republicans: Top stories this week](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/2013/08/22/NPRJ/ghows-PJ-105e5e7d-c191-4779-8783-b1d038fd97e5-03d262a1.jpeg?auto=webp&crop=669,378,x0,y34&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Drone pilot Marc Bontemps captures video of Providence skyline
Bontemps, known for his aerial photos and videos on the Instagram account captured.by.marc, shares his craft with columnist Mark Patinkin.
captured.by.marc
Here are some of The Providence Journal’s most-read stories for the week of Aug. 25, supported by your subscriptions.
Here are the week’s top reads on providencejournal.com:
WESTERLY – Rhode Island’s most famous part-time resident spent time this week at her Watch Hill home, along with her football star boyfriend, at least according to People magazine and TMZ.
Both outlets report that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce – along with pals Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper – were in Rhode Island this week, as the singer takes a break from her Eras tour, which resumes in October, and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end prepares for his Sept. 5 season opener against the Ravens.
Read on for more details on the celebrity sightings around Swift’s Watch Hill mansion, dubbed the “Holiday House.”
Entertainment: Taylor Swift is in Rhode Island this weekend (and she brought some famous friends with her)
PROVIDENCE − The owner of the Atlantic Mills in Olneyville has put the giant mill building up for sale after backing out of a deal with the city and the Providence Redevelopment Agency to buy the sprawling property.
Those who work in the building say they are worried about being kicked out of one of the cheapest manufacturing, warehouse and office spaces in the city, which could mean the end of business for some of them.
Unlike downtown Providence, where offices have remained empty since the pandemic, the Atlantic Mills is almost full, with an estimated 88% of its occupiable space leased. Tenant businesses say that alternative spaces elsewhere in the city are far too expensive and lack the sense of community they prize at their current location.
“We call this a hidden gem,” said tenant Mike McNulty, who runs a woodshop there.
Real estate: ‘Hidden gem’: Pending sale of Atlantic Mills leaves tenants worried about their future
All summer long, American Mussel Harvesters’ 8-acre oyster farm south of the Jamestown Bridge sat idle.
The problem wasn’t the oysters. It was the 90-minute voyage to get there. And Adam Silkes, who oversees the operation, just couldn’t justify burning all that time and fuel.
Until a few years ago, American Mussel Harvesters kept its boats at a marina near the company’s Quonset headquarters, so shellfish only had a five-minute trip from dock to cooler. Then, according to Silkes, the cost of dock space more than doubled.
“It’s reaching crisis proportions, honestly,” said Bob Rheault, executive director of both the Ocean State Aquaculture Association and East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. If you can’t access your farm, he said, “it’s a death knell.”
Read the full story to learn what’s causing the shortage of affordable dock space, and what solutions are being proposed to protect the state’s aquaculture industry.
Local news: Rising prices leave oyster farmers, quahoggers searching for places to dock their boats
“It just makes sense to be a Republican in Rhode Island!” proclaims a whiteboard in the unassuming headquarters of the Rhode Island GOP.
GOP chairman Joe Powers, who came up with the slogan, argues that people are “sick and tired” after almost 90 years of Democratic rule. But when asked about the main obstacles that he faces when trying to enlist candidates, he answers bluntly: “Being a Republican in Rhode Island.”
Rhode Island voters have gone nearly two decades without electing a Republican to any of the state’s top offices or to Congress. And GOP members are shut out of many of the positions that typically serve as a pipeline to political advancement.
Political Scene explores how Powers and the state GOP’s new executive director, 22-year-old Aidan Carey, are trying to build the party’s bench and chip away at Democrats’ supermajority.
Political Scene: Is there a path for Republicans in RI? Inside the party’s effort to build its bench.
Journal columnist Mark Patinkin was scrolling through Instagram one day when he came across a post with stunning aerial nighttime footage of Providence, backed by classical music.
Curious about the person behind the page captured.by.marc, he tracked down Marc Bontemps, a Montreal native now living in Providence who wanted to show off the beauty of his adopted city. Bontemps became a licensed drone pilot, capturing images ranging from WaterFire to tugboats on Narragansett Bay, and he displayed his craft while being interviewed on Providence’s pedestrian bridge.
Mark Patinkin: Drone pilot’s videos hold Providence in the highest regard. How he works his aerial magic
To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com. Find out how to subscribe here.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island state police make multiple arrests in single night – Newport Dispatch
![Rhode Island state police make multiple arrests in single night – Newport Dispatch Rhode Island state police make multiple arrests in single night – Newport Dispatch](https://www.newportdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Sirens-8.jpg)
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Rhode Island State Police arrested four individuals on various charges during a series of traffic stops and warrant executions on Nov. 15.
At 4:45 p.m., troopers arrested Noel Morales, 52, of Meriden, Connecticut, as a fugitive from justice on a third-degree assault charge from Connecticut.
Morales was apprehended during a traffic stop on Route 95 in Exeter.
William Zuercher, 64, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was arrested at 8:58 p.m. for driving under the influence and refusing a chemical test after being stopped on Route 95 in Exeter.
Zuercher was arraigned and released to a responsible adult.
At 10:20 p.m., Richard Adorno, 43, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested on a warrant for domestic violence simple assault during a traffic stop in Warwick.
He was later transferred to Providence police custody.
Derek Iraheta, 45, of West Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested at 1:51 a.m. on Nov. 16 on warrants for domestic violence simple assault and failure to relinquish a telephone.
Iraheta was stopped on Route 95 in East Greenwich and later turned over to Warwick police.
All arrests were processed at the Hope Valley Barracks.
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