EDITORIAL: If RI Funds Superman Building Reset, Taxpayers Should Be Partners
Friday, August 27, 2021
The new proposal for the reuse of the Superman Building in Providence by the ownership group — High Rock Development — is to transform the former vacant bank building into 285 apartments.
The costs of the project are now projected at $215 million and the developer is asking for a package of federal, state and local incentives that are estimated to total about $85 to $90 million.
There are rational reasons to invest in saving the Superman Building, but it is critical that there are protections are in place to ensure Rhode Islanders are not only protected on the investment, but citizens should also realize a share of the success if there is an exit.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Islanders are rightfully cynical after the 38 Studios debacle and the much more recent and relevant River House project.
As GoLocal unveiled, the developers of the River House apartments located in Providence located next to the Point Street Bridge received a total of $9.2 million in state subsidies.
According to Commerce Corporation records, the cost of the project was $62 million and coupled with the "$8,354,910 in Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credits and use tax reimbursement of $700,000 for eligible construction and build out costs," the actual investment by the developer was just $52,945,090.
In just over two years, the property was flipped to Brown University for a reported $75 million.
Brown got a spanking new complex with a tax stabilization. They won.
The developer realized a windfall of more than $22 million in just two years. They won.
Rhode Island taxpayers? They got nothing. They lost.
There are critical reasons to work to create a viable deal:
First, the cost of doing nothing — as has occurred over the past eight years — has been devastating to Providence and the downtown area, an area that is just a sad shadow of its former self.
Providence’s so-called Financial District is nearly desolate.
We don't need to leave the building vacant for 70 years as we did with the Masonic Temple -- now the Renaissance Hotel.
Second, the building is an architectural gem.
“The State House and the Industrial National Bank Tower are Providence‘s most imposing and historically significant buildings. They are our Pantheon and our Colosseum. Like their counterparts in Rome, they must be preserved as part of our heritage," Friedrich St. Florian, Rhode Island’s most revered architect told GoLocal in March.
“We must have the collective will to re-invent the Industrial National Bank Tower in order to secure its future as a standard-bearer of excellence in architecture,” said Florian who is the architect of the World War Two Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Third, demolishing the building would be a massive failure and would create yet another surface parking lot. Nothing more.
Therefore, if Rhode Island is going to provide more than a third of the financing through a variety of economic tools and incentives, then Rhode Island should have a protected financial interest in the project.
GoLocal supports the redevelopment of the building with the caveat -- an explicit caveat -- that Rhode Island is a financial partner in the project.
Let's move forward as partners and reinvent the Superman Building and reinvent our city -- and state's -- economic strategy.