Arcade plan to include loft-style apartments, retail

IN BETTER TIMES: The Arcade's upper floors, shown here in 2007 before the 1828 landmark closed, are expected to contain apartments, which will be supported by retail on the ground floor. PBN FILE PHOTO/STEPHANIE EWENS

BY PATRICK ANDERSON
PBN STAFF WRITER

PROVIDENCE – The owner of the historic Arcade shopping center on Westminster Street is set to announce redevelopment plans for the empty downtown landmark that sources say will include apartments above first-floor stores.

Evan Granoff, principal of 130 Westminster Associates LLC, has scheduled an event at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Arcade to announce the plans along with Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Known as one of the country’s first indoor shopping malls, the Arcade has been on the Providence Preservation Society’s list of Top 10 Most Endangered Properties since 2009 after it was closed for renovations in 2008.

At the time of the closing, Granoff announced plans to renovate the interior of the 1828 Greek revival building and then lease it to a single tenant. The single tenant never materialized, and the building has remained in mothballs since.

In addition to its architectural value and historic status, the Arcade is considered vital to the health of the Financial District because of the public link it provides between the primary commercial arteries of Westminster Street and Weybosset Street.

Asked for details of the plans, Granoff this week referred calls about the Arcade to spokeswoman Jennifer Bramley, who said only that a “major announcement” about the future of the Arcade would be made at the Wednesday event.

However, multiple sources with knowledge of the plans told PBN they will include more than 40 small apartments in the second and third floor spaces that used to be occupied by shops. The apartments, which will not have full kitchens, will be targeted to young people and professionals looking for a small space to stay downtown while on business.

The ground-floor spaces will again feature a mix of stores and probably a restaurant or café, the sources said

Major renovations coming to Garden City

Shopping center expanding, adding stores

• By Darren Soens

CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) - Developers revealed plans for a major renovation Monday at Cranston's Garden City shopping center.

The popular outdoor shopping venue will be renovating some existing stores and adding new ones, as part of a two-phase, multi-million-dollar construction project that will begin later this spring.

The first phase will involve constructing a new 20,000 square-foot building next to the existing Papa Razzi restaurant, which will house two retailers.

Also during the first phase,developers say the Garden City gazebo will be transformed into the focal point of the shopping center.

The second phase of the project will see some now-vacant larger stores converted into smaller shops and restaurants.

Cranston Mayor Allan Fung is optimistic the renovations will attract more shoppers to Cranston.

"It's going to make it a destination so that people are going to want to come back ... to see a new face to Garden City."

Among the changes announced Monday, women's retailer Ann Taylor will be opening a store at Garden City, and Williams-Sonoma will be expanding.

The entire project is expected to be completed by early 2013.

Casino in Quonset?

Trillo to propose Casino, Lincoln administrator objects

Posted: 1/5/2012 1:54:05 PM
Updated: 1/5/2012 2:31:29 PM

Representative Joe Trillo said he is gaining bipartisan support in the General Assembly for a plan to build a “world class casino” in the Quonset Point business park.

“I want to build the biggest world class casino in the state of RI where we currently have resources that no one can compete with,” Trillo toldWPRO’s Dan Yorke. Trillo said that the nearby golf course, highway, and the ocean front access would attract vacationers and even cruise ships to Rhode Island.

Despite claims that the port can’t sustain thousand foot cruise ships Trillo says he knows it can and that “no dredging would be necessary.”

Trillo said this casino would be a win-win for an economically devastated state. “It will create 20,000 jobs, it will save $300 million dollars and it will create another $200 million in revenue.” Currently, RI stands to lose $300 million dollars in gambling revenue to Massachusetts casinos.

Lincoln Town Administator Joe Almond disagreed. “All you’re going to do by opening a big casino in Quonset is move all the employees and all the revenue from Lincoln and exhaust one of our most valuable resources, our port,” Almond told WPRO’s Dan Yorke and Rep. Trillo.

Currently, he says 35 of his collegues support his plan and he has hired a consultant to evaluate the market.

Trillo said there is clearly a market for a casino in the area because Steven Wynn has proposed one in Foxboro right over the border of Rhode Island. “The tide is right to do this, this project would not have even been talked about 5 years ago, three years ago,” said Trillo. Trillo says the approval of casinos in Massachusetts has given Rhode Islanders the appetite to have a casino in the state.

“Nobody is going to come and invest the kind of money you are talking about,” said Almond to Trillo. Almond said that the market has been researched and area casinos are struggling making it unlikely that a casino at Quonset would be successful. Instead he said that the state should “secure the market we have by supporting the facilities that we have.”

Trillo argues that his casino could offer a bigger and better facility. "Nobody can compete with something that is on the water, that can dock crusise ships, that has a golf course, that has a bike path, that has three marinas, a near-by airport and a super highway," said Trillo.

The diagram that Trillo has made to demonstrate the casino proposes that the first floor of the casino resort would be 2.5 million square feet and the casino alone would be 5,000 square feet. Aside from the casino and accomodations, Trillo says he envisions the resort containing an indoor amusement park, a museam, and an aquarium among other attractions.

Trillo said that if the casino is done right it will attract people from all over the country and world to the destination.

Larger Diagram of Trillo's Quonset Casino:

Providence Waterfront Redevelopment Idea