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Hard to say if the money will be wasted as we haven't any info on the ask. But as the building is only worth like $15m, perhaps the city or state or some governmental entity should buy the building and hire a management firm to run it. I mean, that's a boatload of money. And the process for vetting any transaction must be transparent. I know that ¡Gina! isn't very fond of accountability and just hates having to walk in the sunlight when it comes to the dispensation or investment of taxpayer money. Maybe that's one reason she is sinking in the polls.
At least that would make some sense, getting an ownership stake. The current owner is the last person the state, or anyone should want to partner with. He bought it at a high price, had a tenant paying $3mil a year in rent and doing the maintenance, but failed to plan for the known possibility that the tenant would leave. Now he wants a taxpayer gift of more than twice what he paid for it. If it is that important to save the building, take from the current owner, and get the proper team in place to reuse it.
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Buff Chace is clearly a smart guy and he's gotten a lot of good things done in the city, and were I in charge, he'd be the first person I'd ask a simple question: "Is this building viable?" And I'd ask that question because I don't know and I'm not sure anyone knows. I suspect that a profit cannot be made with the structure and that as bad as its short-term outlook is, long-term sustainability is probably worse. I don't think the tower can survive collision with market realities and that even with a hefty dose of public funds at the front end, it will be a constant drain going forward. It is not entirely inconceivable that it will disappear from the skyline.
Buff Chace has done all his redevelopment on the tax payer dollar. At some point it has to stop, or he needs to change his business model to one that is sustainable without public funds. He just got something like $3 million in Rebuild RI tax credits for the empty lot at 78 Fountain St. Gilbane built on Thayer St with no tax credits, and no TSA either because it was profitable. If they can't get it done in downtown without handouts, then they need to reconsider what they are doing.
I love downtown and think future construction there will not be offices, it will be new residential. But who would want to live with the bus terminal at KP as your "front yard?" Maybe you can ask your pal Trump to invest in the building, huh?
Difficult to find a consistent census of homelessness in Providence, but this organization says there are about 4,000 Rhode Islanders that move through the cycle of homelessness this past year. PVD's pop is about 18% of state total, so I suspect adding in the urban-centric nature of homelessness, we probably have 800-1,100 homeless people, or people who are homeless at some point during the year. Some of them live or congregate, or simply catch the infrequently-scheduled bus, using KP. That's a lot of homelessness in the city and while the tower has 350k sq ft of interior space, it couldn't physically house many of them. Though, if used as Section 8 or other federally funded subsidy, there could also be federal funds available to modernize and repurpose the structure. So, yes, that's perhaps an option.
But it's not possible any longer to view the Industrial Trust Tower as a standalone, as a one-and-done project. There is tremendous energy around unifying what (it seems) is called "Greater Kennedy Plaza." Here's a story in Architectural News with preliminary 2013 renderings. I believe this is going to be the next comprehensive and transformative initiative, at least on the scale of Waterplace Park, but far more impactful and impactful to many more people. The integration of largely ignored, if not entirely forgotten Burnside Park with the island parks and the skating rink is one feature, another is a high quality, pedestrian-friendly street and sidewalk to link Washington Street, and a long-term goal to energize and repurpose the wall of skyscraper-ish buildings. (I submitted a "friend of the city" addendum proposing demolition of City Hall but haven't heard back just yet.) So perhaps the building can stay on ice for a few years while this is all sorted out and funded.
This isn't a risky or even bold plan - it isn't moving rivers and bridges, it's foundational work, it is a thoughtful realignment of several scattered elements into a unified civic space, as well as an adjoining, rejuvenated commercial sector. The civic space won't cost much, under $20m, I suspect, but the commercial aspect ,that could be expensive. The City Department of Planning (which deserves credit for a brilliant reconfiguration of KP), the Dept of Econ Dev, RIPTA and a nascent private/public sector organization are preparing a plan for review -- I don't know when it will be done.
So I hope in 500 excessive words I briefly replied to a simple question, but now you can see, I hoope, why the tower should not be used for section 8 housing, and perhaps not for any residential use.
House Finance's version of the budget puts a cap on the Rebuild RI tax credits of $150million, which means we can expect them to issue all the way up to $150mil. It also makes those funds available to some 195 land developers.
The per project cap is $15mil, so they will have to address that for the $uperman Building.
The other thing is that if a developer gets awarded tax credits and sells them, the proceeds from the sale are tax free.
The other thing is that if a developer gets awarded tax credits and sells them, the proceeds from the sale are tax free.
Thieves
I'm sorry, that got garbled in transmission. Did you say tax credits can be sold at full market value and the profit (Which would be 100% profit, would be tax free? Shoot, I imagine it's tall cotton time for GA family member, and close friends, of course... this can't be right, I must be reading it incorrectly.
I'm sorry, that got garbled in transmission. Did you say tax credits can be sold at full market value and the profit (Which would be 100% profit, would be tax free? Shoot, I imagine it's tall cotton time for GA family member, and close friends, of course... this can't be right, I must be reading it incorrectly.
"(j)(k) For purposes of this chapter, any assignment or sales proceeds received by the taxpayer for its assignment or sale of the tax credits allowed pursuant to this section shall be exempt from taxation under title 44 of the general laws. "
My guess is they are sold at less than cash value to someone else that will use them at full value for their taxes. Isn't that what Corso was going to do with the 38 Studios Movie Production Tax credits?
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