Superman Building Today: Smell of Urine, Graffiti and Decay — Developer Poised to Ask for More

Monday, May 01, 2023

GoLocalProv Business Team and Josh Fenton

 

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Superman Building's lead developer David Sweetser announcing the deal in the State Room of the State House. PHOTO: GoLocal

 

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Urine soaked entrance to the Superman Building. PHOTO: GoLocal

It was just last April when Rhode Island and Providence officials hosted a State House press conference with David Sweetser of High Rock Development, owners of the Superman Building, to announce a long-awaited deal to revitalize Providence’s tallest building. 

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Today, walk by the majestic bank building, and you are met with the strong smell of urine. Instead of construction crews beginning the rehab, the building has never looked more bleak — the limestone of the building is showing more and more decay. Graffiti is now hitting the building, and the homeless are taking refuge in the elegant entrance ways sleeping against the filthy brass doors.

 

Now, the developer is poised to ask for more taxpayer dollars for the stalled project. In a statement to GoLocal, Bill Fischer, a spokesman for Swetser's High Rock, said:

"To date, we have not made a specific request for increased support at the State House. The work to redevelop the Superman Building has been born at a cost of millions of dollars solely by the developer. Not one penny of taxpayer money has been expended on the project.

Rhode Island continues to need more housing, and the capital city needs this core downtown property brought back to life. High Rock Development remains fully committed to working with stakeholders in attempting to advance this project and fulfill these needs."

 

Sweetser and his team are expected to ask for tens of millions of dollars in additional public funding. They have reached out to state officials, signaling that they will seek the $25 million that was slated for the Fane Tower project.  And, they may be seeking much more.

 

But state officials tell GoLocal that Swetser has yet to provide a pro forma of the project's costs.

 

This is all happening a year after the jammed-packed press conference in the gilded State Room was staged in front of the priceless portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart.

 

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April 2022 under the George Washington Portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart, the near capacity press conference promised the Superman Building would be transformed into apartments. PHOTO: GoLocal

 

Sweetser, with Governor Dan McKee, then-Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, and legislative leaders Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, announced the plans to take the former Fleet Bank headquarters and transform it into an apartment complex.

 

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Mold can be observed and a number of cracks can be seen on the limestone exterior of the Superman Building. PHOTO: GoLocal

The deal as announced, committed federal, state, and Providence incentives that total exceeded $90 million to the benefit of the developer when including the value of federal and state tax credits coupled with a lucrative tax stabilization plan. The total project cost was announced at $223 million based on the construction cost of approximately $300/square foot — an estimate that has been widely criticized as being too low.

 

The feeling at the time was the price tag was expensive but at least one of America’s greatest eyesores would be revitalized. In 2019, the Superman Building was named one of "America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its annual list.

 

Over the past ten years, more than a half dozen plans had fallen through to revitalize the historic building.

 

 

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A plan by Paolino Properties and Gilbane to build a tower for Hasbro's HQ and tear-down the Superman Building never moved forward.

 

There were plans for the building to be the corporate headquarters for Citizens Bank, Samsonite, and Hasbro. There was a deal to bring some of PayPal’s operations, and even Richard Branson flippantly said he could turn the Superman Building into a hotel.

 

 

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Limestone Company featuring the Superman Building

Ten Years

It has been now more than ten years since Bank of America and its CEO Brian Moynihan decided to exit the building. Moynihan had deep roots in Providence — he attended Brown, worked at the law firm Edwards and Angell, and climbed his way up the ranks at Fleet Bank. Since 2010, he has been CEO of Bank of America.

 

In the year since the 2022 press conference, the City of Providence approved its portion of the funding, and Commerce RI's board approved more than $20 million in state funding just weeks after the press event.

 

No Action a Year Later -- Excuses Mounting for Developer

Presently, there are no workers. There is no construction on site. The building and grounds are even more decayed. In 2019, GoLocal launched a drone to capture the exterior deterioration of the building. In the footage, cracking in the limestone can be seen. Now, four years later, it has spread.

 

 

 

Fischer said, "The massive interest rate hikes since the project was initially approved, along with unstemmed construction inflation and a newly developing banking crisis, have presented challenges."

 

But when Sweetser and the state finalized the deal and made the announcement, the Federal Reserve had announced that there would be substantial interest rate increases, and major banks, including Goldman Sachs, predicted interest rates would be even higher now than there are.

 

In the past 12 months, construction costs have only increased between 2% and 3%.

 

Stefan Pryor, formerly the Secretary of Commerce for the state and now the Secretary of Housing, says the deal continues to be important to meet the serious housing shortage.

 

"Given the challenges that construction projects are facing across the region and given the need for housing production in our state, we are in communication with the 111 Westminster Street development team -- and we are keeping our eye on this project. We remain of the opinion that this project would be a valuable contributor to our capital city's vitality and to our state's positive momentum,” said Pryor.

 

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