PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Supreme Court this week denied a City of Providence petition for appeal of a March 14 decision, which awarded the right to buy a 5-acre waterfront parcel to Promet Marine Services Corp.

“After a three-year battle with the state and the Providence Redevelopment Agency, we are very pleased that the R.I. Supreme Court has definitely ruled in our favor and rejected the city’s motion for reconsideration,” Joel H. Cohen – Promet’s vice president and co-owner, and one of the local Propeller Club’s 2008 Maritime Persons of the Year – said in a statement this week. “We now look forward to completing the purchase of the land so that we can continue to grow our business.”

The case dates back to 2004, when the R.I. Department of Environmental Management decided to sell the Allens Avenue property on which Promet has operated for the past 25 years.

Promet won the right to purchase the parcel, with a bid of about $1 million. But the Providence Redevelopment Agency later decided to exercise its right of first refusal, according to a February 2006 decision by Providence County Superior Court. (Had the agency purchased the property, it would have acted as landlord to Promet until the company’s lease expires in 2011. Promet has an option to extend that lease until 2021.)

The Supreme Court now has reversed the lower court’s decision, saying that since redevelopment is the agency’s stated purpose, Providence Redevelopment shouldn’t be allowed to buy land it doesn’t intend to redevelop.

The company this week expressed concern, however, that a measure before the R.I. General Assembly – 2008 - S2967, heard Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee – could “circumvent” the March 14 decision just upheld by the state’s highest court.

The Senate measure would allow for a city or town council to pass ordinances declaring parcels “with or without redevelopment plans” as “blighted and substandard.” That designation, under the Redevelopment Act, would allow a sity or town redevelopment agency to either purchase the property in question or take it by eminent domain.

Promet said in a statement Wednesday that the legislation “would essentially declare all of the mistakes made by the Providence Redevelopment Agency in the [Promet property] case now legal.”

Promet Marine Services Corp., founded in 1974, operates a dry-dock facility on Allens Avenue Providence, offering voyage repair and services to a wide variety of vessels. For more information visit www.PrometMarineServices.com. To learn more about the Providence Working Waterfront Coalition, visit www.ProvidenceWorkingWaterfront.org.

Information from the R.I. General Assembly, including the House and Senate calendars and listings of measures introduced each day, is available at rilin.state.ri.us.