State seeks proposals for former Shooters site

When the state tried to sell the former Shooters nightclub property on Providence’s Fox Point waterfront to developers three years ago, neighbors revolted over the thought of a 15-story condominium tower looming over India Point Park.
So state leaders set about developing the 1.7-acre property into a publicly accessible gateway marina with commercial, recreational and cultural space replacing residences.
Now Rhode Islanders will find out if the economics of such a project can attract the private investment needed to make the public-private partnership work and turn the site into a dynamic connection between the city and Narragansett Bay.
In a request for proposals released last week, the state seeks development teams to put their best ideas, and financial packages, for developing the Shooters India Street site forward by Oct. 4.
The RFP comes after the state a year ago solicited informal proposals – minus financials – for redeveloping Shooters and received eight responses.
Most were from community groups and only one from a development firm, UbiGo LLC, an affiliate of Truth Box Inc., the company that built the Box Office out of shipping containers on Harris Avenue in Providence.
Lisa Primiano, deputy chief of the Division of Planning and Development at the DEM, acknowledged that finding a developer willing to put the money up to build something at Shooters looks like the greatest challenge going forward.
“I felt like if I had a built building, I could find a tenant, but I need someone to build the building,” Primiano said.
Although the RFP leaves a significant amount of flexibility for teams to come up with ways to generate revenue from the property, there are requirements.
The winner will be asked to enter into a 20-year lease agreement with two 10-year renewal options and, under state law for long-term leases, pay the property taxes for the site. The RFP calls for a restaurant of some kind on the site, along with public dock space for transient boaters.
Year-round use of the waterfront itself should be maximized and any project must include public water access and access to some part of the building interior. Residences of any kind will not be allowed.
Opened for business at 25 India St. in 1990, Shooters was part of a Florida nightclub chain built after earlier plans to erect a 126-unit condominium complex fell apart. Shooters ran into financial problems and was sold. It was reopened as Bootleggers but was shuttered for good in 2000. When Bootleggers closed, the deteriorating property was acquired by the state (with federal transportation money) as a staging area for the Interstate 195 relocation project.
When the Iway work was done, opposition to condominiums at the site stalled plans to sell the property until state voters in 2010 approved borrowing $3.2 million to acquire it for nontransportation use. The building was torn down to its foundation and the floating docks removed last October.
Community group Head of the Bay Gateway led the opposition to residential development of Shooters. The RFP broadly resembles the vision for a waterfront restaurant-function-hall-office-marina space it proposed as an alternative.
One organization with a plan for the Shooters site that intends to submit a formal bid is environmental nonprofit Save The Bay, which wants to build a “center for marine-sciences education” and an aquarium on the property.
“Our vision is for a ground-level space for readings that will bring an aquarium like the one we run in Newport to the Providence waterfront,” said Rose Amoros, director of marketing and communications at Save The Bay. “We want to help restore the connection between Providence and Narragansett Bay.”
Save The Bay is still looking for a development partner for its bid. •

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