Developer eyes hometown advantage

COURTESY TPG
HOME AGAIN? The Lodges at Phenix Glen would feature high-end rental appartments.
COURTESY TPG HOME AGAIN? The Lodges at Phenix Glen would feature high-end rental appartments.

The Procaccianti Group is counting on upscale amenities and a hometown advantage to build 192 high-end rental apartments on a property in western Cranston that has confounded multifamily-development plans before.
The Lodges at Phenix Glen proposal now before city officials would be the first project of its kind built in Cranston in decades and bring the type of luxury-style apartments Procaccianti manages in downtown Providence to the site of a former sand-and-gravel pit just west of Interstate 295.
“What we learned from [The Residences apartment tower in Providence] is the right product – providing the security and concierge service and making it desirable – will command the right rent,” said Procaccianti Vice President Michael Voccola about The Lodges. “We want to take that to the suburbs. This doesn’t exist in Cranston.”
With its national headquarters on Reservoir Avenue five minutes from the proposed Lodges site, Procaccianti first floated its plan to neighbors a year ago in anticipation of a complicated permitting battle.
The Lodges would be made up of three four-story, 64-unit apartment buildings, plus a 5,846-square-foot community clubhouse building and 7,200-square-foot retail-office building at the complex’s Phenix Avenue entrance.
Procaccianti estimates the project will cost $30 million to build and result in a one-year boost of $1.57 million in state sales tax and a $1.6 million bump in local taxes and fees while generating 234 local jobs during construction.
When the cost of providing municipal and school services to the new residents is factored in, the developer predicts the project will have a net benefit to the city of $118,000 per year. But like virtually every suburban residential project of its size, The Lodges have not been embraced by everyone.
Concerns about traffic and increased urbanization in western Cranston have mobilized an opposition group called the Cranston Intelligent Development Committee, which argues the project would harm the character of the area.
“Traffic now is almost at the breaking point – with 192 apartments, I fear that we are going to have gridlock here,” said Fred E. Joslyn Jr., a critic of Phenix Glen who lives on nearby Gaglione Court.
Procaccianti chose the former Del Bonis Sand and Gravel site because it fit the profile of an underutilized property in a “segue,” or transition area, between single-family residential neighborhoods, industrial-commercial properties and highways.
With I-295 to the east and Route 37 to the south, the project site is abutted to the north by an animal shelter, ice rinks, public-works yard and the P.J. Keating Co. rock quarry, which Voccola said provide a “buffer” to the single-family neighborhoods further west.
But Procaccianti, whose agreement to buy the DeVonis property is contingent on city approval of The Lodges, wasn’t the first developer to seize on the site as a candidate for an apartment complex.
A plan proposed in 2008 for the site would have built two taller apartment towers with roughly the same number of total units targeting a midrange rental market.
After securing state environmental approval, which The Lodges idea is using, the plan was abandoned in the face of local opposition.
Procaccianti wants The Lodges to attract professionals and retirees making between $75,000 and $125,000 a year and 40-65 years old. Rents are projected to range from $1,800 to $2,200 per month on apartments starting with 700-square-foot studios and going up to 1,400-square-foot, two-bedrooms. A decade ago a development like The Lodges might have involved condominiums instead of rentals, but the condominium market has languished even more than the single-family market. At The Residences, Procaccianti has turned what had initially been a full condominium building into a partial rental building.
In addition to liking the prospects of the rental market, Voccola said his company sees the demographics of the Providence area, like that of the country, skewing older towards residents looking for compact, no-maintenance living.
To ease concerns about the character of the retail building, which would include a drive-through, Procaccianti has promised the commercial building will employ traditional architecture and not include any fast food chains, back-lit or neon signs.
While currently zoned single-family residential, the proposed Lodges site was identified as a possible redevelopment area in Cranston’s comprehensive plan and as a future “village center” for the western part of the city.
The Cranston City Plan Commission has approved the master plan for the project. The City Council must now decide on a needed zoning change.
With Procaccianti’s $5 billion in real estate assets under ownership or management around the country, Voccola describes the decision to build in Cranston as a vote of confidence in the company’s hometown.
“If we couldn’t see an opportunity here in our own backyard, who would?” Voccola said. •

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