Investors pitch research center in Jewelry District

PROVIDENCE – An investment firm is proposing a life sciences research center in the capital city’s Jewelry District.

To be called Victory Square, the 750,000-square-foot center, a $90 million project, would sit in the middle of an area envisioned by city officials as a hub for medical research.

The property between Eddy, Hospital and Globe Streets hosts a dilapidated former jewelry-plating factory now in receivership.

Vincent Indeglia, the property’s receiver, plans to ask the City Council Finance Committee Thursday for a tax deal that would clear the way for JAG Investment Realty of Middletown to buy the lot for $7.5 million.

The deal would exempt the property from taxes for the first three years; then, during the next decade, gradually lower the exemption rate to nothing. In total, the deal would generate $19.8 million in taxes for the city plus $600,000 in back taxes, about half the amount owed.

In paperwork filed with the council, Indeglia justified the deal saying that the property was producing little tax revenue now because of its poor condition. The project, he said, would simulate economic development, creating 800 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

Indeglia said JAG would build the project in phases, with the first two, representing 500,000 square feet, finishing in about three years. The last phase would depend on market conditions.

Indeglia said he has already received court approval for the sale, provided the tax deal is approved.

JAG must also clean up environmental contamination on the site in a project estimated to cost between $1.5 million and $2 million.