Dowling combatants at peace

IT TAKES A 
VILLAGE: 
Paulette 
Hamilton, town administrator 
for North Smithfield, at the entrance to Dowling Village, a retail development that has garnered both critics and 
supporters.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Paulette Hamilton, town administrator for North Smithfield, at the entrance to Dowling Village, a retail development that has garnered both critics and supporters.

The battle was tough and fiercely fought, but the outcome to date satisfies the major combatants in the long-running saga of Dowling Village, a 122-acre, $85 million retail and commercial center under development off Route 146A in North Smithfield.
Dowling Village, named for its location on the Eddie Dowling Highway (aka Route 146A), when built-out promises to be one of the largest retail and commercial centers certainly in northern Rhode Island and possibly the state. Some 600,000 square feet is available for lease in the mixed-use development.
The four-phase project by Bucci Development in Warwick, which was in the works for at least the last six years, has drawn two major businesses so far to the sprawling site near the Woonsocket line, a CVS/pharmacy store and a Wal-Mart Supercenter, with more retail enterprises on the way, according to Brian A. Bucci, principal of the development company.
Bucci said the development is like no other, in part because of its rustic character.
“It’s very visually appealing,” he said, describing a winding road with timbered guard rails and high-end street lamps taking visitors to a Wal-Mart set in a forest of trees. “You feel as if you’re out in the middle of the woods. It’s surreal,” he said. “You don’t see many shopping centers like this.”
Bucci confirmed only that he is talking to other retail concerns about acquiring space, but would not disclose who they are until written agreements are signed and firmly in hand, he said.
An unusual aspect of the project would see installation of a wind turbine to generate electricity for Wal-Mart and other stores in place of an earlier plan to construct residential units on the same 42-acre parcel land. The turbine installation, however, is dependent on getting a state grant.
The office of North Smithfield Town Administrator Paulette Hamilton has a made a point of cooperating both with the developer and with the major Dowling Village opponent, a well-organized group of town residents led by Caroly Shumway known as the Valley Alliance for Smart Growth.
“Residents raised a lot of questions at lots of public hearings, but I think we’ve managed to allay a number of their fears and, after a long period of time, we’ve ended up with a better project,” Hamilton said. “There are ups and downs to every project, but we’ve had a good relationship with everyone participating right along. In the long run, I think it [Dowling Village] will be beneficial to the community.” She noted that Bucci is endeavoring to bring in “quality” businesses that do not duplicate local companies already operating in town, and she praised Valley Alliance because she said the town “owes it a debt of gratitude” for its well-researched work to improve the development.
The Valley Alliance took the developer to court three separate times in the last six years with mixed results, winning some points and losing others but never able to stop the project. The effort was funded in large part by grants from foundations, Shumway said.
She told Providence Business News her group’s role now is to be a watchdog to “ensure that the developer does what we worked so hard to have him do.”
She said her group is most pleased with measures the developer will undertake to monitor stormwater, but is disappointed because they could wrest no changes in traffic management from the developer. She predicted, as Dowling Village is built-out, traffic congestion will result in this busy area of town, located off a well-traveled highway that is a major artery to Woonsocket and nearby Massachusetts towns.
Wal-Mart operated a store in Woonsocket, off Diamond Hill Road in the eastern part of the city for about 10 years, but moved several miles west to North Smithfield where its super-center of 155,000 square feet – open around the clock and selling groceries – opened in mid-September. For years, residents speculated that Woonsocket’s Wal-Mart would wind up moving to Dowling Village, but officials and the developer regularly refused to confirm it.
North Smithfield Town Planner Robert Ericson dismissed the idea that the community, a town of about 11,000 residents, “stole” Wal-Mart from Woonsocket.
He said Wal-Mart still owns and is paying property taxes on its Woonsocket building and the move brought 85 new jobs to town, although most employees were already working at the Woonsocket store. “It is a benefit to both towns,” he said of the move.
Retail interest in Dowling Village is evident, Ericson said, noting that his office has received phone calls from potential tenants asking about it and, according to Hamilton, a site is being cleared for a new store.
The development is expected to generate about $700,000 annually in property taxes to the largely residential town when fully built-out in about two years, said Ericson, citing what he called a “ballpark figure” for the tax revenue. The town planning board has approved the master plan and the only local approvals left are building permits for individual stores, according to Ericson. Phases I and III, CVS and Wal-Mart respectively, are essentially complete, Ericson said, leaving Phase II, where he said most stores will be located and Phase IV for either the wind turbine or a residential complex.
Regarding the wind turbine, the North Smithfield Land Trust, working jointly with the town, won a $400,000 grant from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management to purchase 42 acres at Dowling Village.
About 40 acres would be preserved as a town-owned conservation area near Booth Pond and about 2 acres devoted to the wind turbine, leased to Bucci. But the grant had to be returned because plans for the wind turbine were not firmed up in time.
Town officials said they fully expect to reapply and receive the grant again. Bucci, whose company will be financially responsible for installing the wind turbine, said plans must be firmly in place before the end of the calendar year to qualify for certain tax credits he needs. The turbine would be built in 2012.
Bucci explained that the turbine would be just one of many green aspects he incorporated into Dowling Village, including what he called “one of the most advanced stormwater-management systems in the nation” – a point Shumway confirmed. “They have a state-of-the-art, stormwater-prevention program,” she said.
Ericson suggested that the wind turbine makes more fiscal sense for the developer than condominiums or apartments. “The market isn’t there for condos right now,” he said, “but the market is there for energy.” Ericson said the new Wal-Mart super-center, open 24 hours a day, consumes more electricity than the aggregate amount used by “all the buildings the town has.”
Atlantic Retail Properties in Boston is marketing the site and advertises it on its website (www.atlanticretail.com) as a “new regional Rhode Island power center” in an area where 187,130 people live with a median income of $56,735. Retail space available ranges from 7,000 to 120,000 square feet. “The property … will be one of Rhode Island’s premier shopping centers,” Atlantic Retail said. &#8226

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