From the Providence Journal Metro Section
Plant project sows seeds of prosperity for mill
BY KAREN A. DAVIS | 01:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 9, 2005
For years, the corner of Valley and Delaine streets had come to be known as the worst in the city, a place beyond repair, a blighted spot without hope.
But yesterday marked a new day, developer Ethan Colaiace declared at a news conference. "Today, we celebrate this corner, this neighborhood, this building." What had been an abandoned manufacturing complex in the Olneyville neighborhood is on its way to becoming a development that will include 29 live-work spaces for artists and 26,500 square feet of commercial space for tenants who provide services to the community.
Called The Plant, the project aims to renovate the Providence Dyeing Bleaching & Calendaring Co., at 60 Valley St.
The project is being carried out by Puente, a nonprofit real estate and economic development organization and Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc.
Colaiace, who is deputy director of development for Struever Bros., said the project represents responsible development "that reflects the social, environmental and economic needs of the community."
Bill Struever, president and CEO of the Struever Bros., said the project is "not our company's project, but is truly the community's project."
That marks a first for a company that has been involved in the development of urban areas for more than 31 years, he said. Struever credited his daughter, Sara, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a Puente staff member, with pushing for the project and bringing to his attention the importance of development that is responsive to community needs first.
The project is receiving financial support from Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which Struever called a "true believer" in the concept.
Barbara Fields, the executive director of the support corporation, said her agency has spent the last 14 years – and more than $100 million – redeveloping housing to strengthen neighborhoods. This project will mark its first foray into development of new markets.
"We started with the housing, but we didn't intend to stop there," Fields said.
"This has been a long time coming," City Councilwoman Josephine DiRuzzo said. With Struever's Rising Mill Sun project of housing and commercial space next door to The Plant and other nearby rehabilitation projects, DiRuzzo said the Valley Street area is the new "hot spot" in the city – not downtown.
The mill complex's seven buildings will soon be home to Sol Art Gallery, a bicycle repair shop and TrY CAPS, an organization that exposes youths to art and culture.
Sara Struever said Puente and the developer spent the last three years working with residents, artists, architects and engineers to create a vision for development of the mill.
The project will have green space and will seek tenants that can provide a service.
For example, one of The Plant's anchor tenants, overseen by Olneyville Housing Corporation, will be a kitchen incubator, which will allow entrepreneurs and caterers to have access to commercial kitchen space in which to make their businesses grow.
Other prospective tenants could be light retail or manufacturing businesses, commercial business owners or tenants seeking office space.
The project will include event space large enough to host fundraisers, conferences and gallery shows, according to Puente officials.
The project is expected to be completed by spring or summer.
Carolyn Mark, Puente's executive director, has said that her three-year-old agency's mission is to preserve historic buildings for use by the community, bucking a trend of gentrification that allows for development, but displaces longtime residents.
Puente, which takes its name from the Spanish word bridge, is based at 104 Valley Street and aims to reactivate abandoned and under-utilized properties.
Mark said city officials and the state Department of Environmental Management have played a key role in getting the project off the ground.
