Category Archives: Development

HQ2 twofers and Providence

Posted on November 14, 2018 by

Two major eastern cities have won the HQ2 stakes, and you have to wonder whether the twofers – Long Island City and Crystal City, outside Manhattan and D.C. – both realize they got half a loaf. How soon will it … Continue reading →

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Committee’s Fane flip-flop

Posted on November 9, 2018 by

Learning nothing in its latest public hearing that it did not already know, the Ordinance Committee of Providence City Council reversed itself on Thursday to recommend that the council neuter the city’s zoning laws. It voted three to one to … Continue reading →

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A little off the top for Fane

Posted on October 23, 2018 by

Monday night’s public hearing into the Fane tower at City Hall barely seemed to push the needle one way or the other on whether to permit its developer, Jason Fane, to ignore the 100-foot height limit on the Jewelry District … Continue reading →

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Stop Fane tower on Monday

Posted on October 18, 2018 by

The good guys will have another opportunity to denounce the bad guys on Monday at a 5:30 p.m. public hearing of the ordinance committee of the Providence City Council. I refer, naturally, to the proposed 600-foot Hope Point Tower by … Continue reading →

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Nordstrom’s absquatulation*

Posted on October 10, 2018 by

Providence and its renaissance will survive the departure, announced yesterday, of Nordstrom from the Providence Place mall. Many local commentators are pulling their hair out in shock and dismay. Relax. Losing Nordstrom is a gut check, but hardly fatal. It’s … Continue reading →

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Big vote tonight on Edge II

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

Edge College Hill II, the follow-on to the nearly complete Edge I residential tower on Canal Street, goes before the Providence City Council today for a huge wad of city cash. Under a tax stabilization agreement (TSA) up for final … Continue reading →

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Getting used to Fane tower

Posted on September 9, 2018 by

In “Once It Was a New Building,” my former editor and longtime friend Robert Whitcomb defended the proposed 600-foot Fane tower in this morning’s GoLocalProv. He writes: GoLocal’s mock editorial last week headlined “Dateline 1924: Don’t Let Them Build That … Continue reading →

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Andres Duany: Downcity adios

Posted on September 6, 2018 by

The following is a guest column written by Andrés Duany, a founder of the New Urbanism movement whose planning and design firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk, has been deeply involved in revitalizing downtown Providence since the early 1990s. He writes in opposition … Continue reading →

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Fane tower vote is tomorrow

Posted on September 5, 2018 by

Tomorrow the Providence City Council will vote on whether the height limit on vacant land in the Jewelry District should be raised by a factor of six on behalf of the proposed 600-foot Fane Tower. It should not. People who … Continue reading →

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ProvSox spike smote PawSox

Posted on August 18, 2018 by

If the PawSox do decamp for Worcester in two years, as seems certain but is not, there is blame enough to go around. The team owners say Rhode Island did not really want them, and they got their first taste … Continue reading →

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