Making Thayer more than college hangout

RENDERING COURTESY KLOPFER MARTIN DESIGN GROUP AND PROVIDENCE PLANNING DEPARTMENT 
STREET SMARTS: The Fones Alley RIPTA stop on the East Side of Providence shown as it would appear with improvements recommended by planners studying the Thayer Street commercial corridor.
RENDERING COURTESY KLOPFER MARTIN DESIGN GROUP AND PROVIDENCE PLANNING DEPARTMENT STREET SMARTS: The Fones Alley RIPTA stop on the East Side of Providence shown as it would appear with improvements recommended by planners studying the Thayer Street commercial corridor.

The foot traffic, property values and investment in Providence’s Thayer Street commercial district are the envy of many Main Street merchants groups in Rhode Island.
But among many local residents and business owners, the bustling watering holes, burrito joints and hookah bars now catering to Providence’s student population are often seen as a mixed blessing, bringing rowdiness as much as commerce.
Now a plan is in place to build a more refined, sophisticated Thayer Street filled with pedestrian amenities, higher-end stores, new offices, nonstudent housing and fewer problem nightlife spots.
After a yearlong community process, the city this month unveiled a preliminary Thayer Street improvement plan designed to beautify the streetscape, make it less auto-centric and attract businesses beyond the college market.
“We want to make sure that with this new development there is a balance in retail,” said Allison Spooner, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, which worked extensively on the plan. “That includes students, and making it safe for students, but also a mix. We are hoping that businesses targeting that [student] market don’t become the only thing on Thayer Street.” In this context, a more diverse Thayer Street means adding more boutiques and upscale shops with an older, wealthier clientele to the bars and eateries now so prominent. Marketing efforts will focus on potential new tenants in the “personal care, apparel, home furnishings and gifts and jewelry and accessory sectors,” the plan said in study findings.
“Thayer Street sucks right now – it has 50 percent restaurants and is not attracting the high-end retailers,” said Edward Bishop, a real estate agent, developer, and chairman of the Thayer Street District Management Authority. “It used to be a ‘town and gown’ neighborhood – now it is just gown, all students.”
The most visible near-term projects spelled out in the plan are a series of pocket parks, outdoor seating areas and bus stops in the corridor, some in what are now parking lanes, to make the area a more pleasant place to walk and spend time.
First among the changes will be a “parklet” in what are now two parking spaces outside the Brown University Bookstore. The parklet is slated to be installed this spring as part of “Pop-up Providence” and be paid for with $10,000 from the Providence Redevelopment Agency. Further into the future, the plan calls for “sidewalk groves” of benches and trees in undesignated spots between Fones Alley and Bowen Street.
And in areas where there isn’t enough space on the sidewalk for outdoor seating, the plan would allow restaurants to put tables and chairs in parking spaces in front of their establishment.
In total, if all streetscape initiatives included in the plan are implemented, the city estimates a resulting net loss of 15 on-street parking spaces, said Bonnie Nickerson, Providence Director of Long-Range Planning.
But while that may shock many drivers, its consistent with the city planners’ objectives to encourage walking, bicycle and transit use, and dedicate more public space to people instead of cars.
Although cutting the number of on-street spaces, the plan would make all Thayer Street parking lanes wider than they are now to narrow travel lanes and slow cars, making the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
For transit riders, the plan calls for a new bus hub with shelters and electronic displays at the entrance to the East Side bus tunnel (which would serve the Providence streetcar if it is built) and new stops moved to the middle of blocks instead of the corners.
Currently underused public spaces, like Fones Alley, Cushing Court and Olive Court, would be “greened” with plantings, murals, drainage improvements and screening of prominent garbage containers.
All of the infrastructure recommendations are pegged to be completed within two years, except the burying of Thayer Street power lines, a longer-term goal that would cost millions of dollars and involve the cooperation of utility National Grid.
With Providence’s finances still stretched, only some of the improvements in the Thayer Street plan will be municipally funded.
To pick up the slack, the plan calls for the Thayer Street District Management Authority to grow significantly into something closer to Providence’s Downtown Improvement District, known for employing yellow-jacketed street ambassadors to clean up and watch the neighborhood.
Recognized by state law, the Thayer management authority now charges landowners a 3.5 percent special-property tax assessment to fund its operations.
The new plan for Thayer Street would have the management authority not only hire a crew of ambassadors and hire an executive director, but also help pay for many of the streetscape improvements, such as the greening of Fones Alley, and marketing the neighborhood. Bishop, the management authority chairman, said the organization will need additional revenue to do all the things in the plan, but also need to show property owners it is doing more before they will accept increased collections.
To boost the authority’s resources, the plan suggested dedicating increases in parking-meter revenue back to the district.
Increased parking revenue will come from charging for some parking spaces in the district that are now free and raising prices for other spaces to more accurately reflect demand.
Reflecting a concept known as “smart parking,” the plan recommends adjusting on-street parking prices in different spots to their market-clearing rate to keep them turning over quickly.
Debate about development on Thayer Street, which has recently included the impact of a new student-apartment building from Gilbane Development Co. and recent nightlife incidents, prompted the city to study the neighborhood, even as it is working on a larger, citywide rezoning. A first draft of the city rezoning is scheduled to be released in February and should include many concepts in the Thayer plan.
To support its call for change on Thayer Street, the plan includes a market study of the area that found half of all businesses there are restaurants, most low-priced casual, despite a very low vacancy rate and the highest average retail rents in Providence, between $40 and $50 per square foot in the district core.
The numbers suggest a major barrier to diversifying beyond the college market is insufficient commercial and residential building stock.
“For some kinds of businesses, there are no spaces big enough,” Bishop said.
Bishop has been trying to build a hotel on Thayer north of Cushing Avenue for some time, an idea endorsed by the new plan. Bishop said he is still eagerly working on putting a hotel plan together and waiting for market conditions to be right.
Another site with what appears to be significant development potential is the vacant former Store 24 building, a single-story structure across the street from the Brown bookstore.
A final version of the Thayer plan is expected to be released in January, Nickerson said. •

No posts to display

3 COMMENTS

  1. While well meaning, unless they add ADDITIONAL parking, the are not going to get an increase in traffic to their planned high-end stores. Contrary to planner’s wishes, people like their cars and the mobility it provides. It’s difficult now to find parking in the area. The street has lost lots of business traffic because of this. A further reduction will make it even less desirable to shop there. Unless the plan includes additional parking, it will fail. Trees and benches are wonderful, but if the shoppers can’t have easier access to the area, it is doomed.

  2. @Stephen234: Oh, enough with the auto-mongering. Your argument is a losing one that is based on a failed auto-centric, pro-suburban, anti-growth, anti-community, post-war mentality of the 1950’s and 60’s. That experiment failed. Lets get back to basics and community oriented development within our urban cores.

  3. Read between the lines. There is plenty of parking, if you happen to be associated with Brown. And who needs parking anyway if you live within walking distance?

    The city has already deeded some streets over to the university. This is just phase II of creating a gated community.