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I’ve got nothing against tall buildings. Grew up in Chicago and to me a city isn’t a city unless it’s got some height. Every time I drive through Worcester I shake my head

I laughed a little at this comment only bc I was at the city hall hearings when the Fane Co were arguing for the permits for the build/build height. So many people representing the historical society and various neighborhood orgs would start their statements with “I’ve got nothing against tall buildings …. “ “I love tall buildings, but … “

It seemed a bit tricky to testify against the group of construction workers who wanted jobs and definitely needed jobs(tho wanting a short term job building something for the sake of its tallness). But yah, this building makes no sense in Providence and there has to be better solutions to work stability for the construction sector than ego building.

So is this meant to go near the new Aloft? I can’t picture this location

For me it just doesn’t seem to make sense. Just flat out. Its as tall as it is so it can say that its the tallest. If you look at this developers projects a lot of them are renovations of existing buildings in the 4-5 story range in New York, and were not talking about a huge portfolio here. Here’s their website:

https://faneorg.com/index.html

As I recall their financing is also a bit up in the air, probably thanks the the slowdown in the housing market, increased interest rates, and the inexperience of the developer at executing something like this.

They seem most equipped to build a 5 over 1, not a 46 story tower. This is just stupid, and I’m looking at this thing thinking that even if they manage to get it built I cant see its vacancy rate being low or it penciling out.

build more than 1! we are desperately in need of more housing units across all income spectrums

In the large park along the river.

Can’t wait to live the 5-8 years of hell working next door while they build this thing that no one wants.

Having the tallest stack of expensive apartments sounds way better than local markets, pridefests, beer gardens and concerts for the people. Yay capitalism!

This building should have been built and finished 2 years ago, the developer is footing the entire cost. You can thank Elorza and his East Side cronies for blocking modernism and jobs and yes, tax revenue. Yet the state pours our money into the the empty ghosted superman building. Providence / R.I. politics at it's worst. But hey, you all voted these bandits in yet again.

^^ these comments are why PVD is lagging behind other mid size cities in development.

“This project makes no sense” is crazy. There’s extreme housing demand at all price points!

Build the damn thing already, it will not have any adverse impact on you.

Yeah, it’s stupid to build a residential building that will be full of people that will support the local businesses in an up and coming area….

I mean look at the comments on here. People get riled up about anything new.

Heaven forbid some building that looks kinda like a building from a comic book but has no relationship to said comic book is not the focal point of the PVD skyline. Definitely a reason not to build!

Except this isnt on PVD, its on the idiots at the state level who refuse to reform zoning laws or address the housing crisis by building up missing middle housing or transit oriented development around the absolutely barren stations in NK and Warwick. Its on the guys at the state who picked this developer and project. Instead we get these moonshot projects where we go for a 46 story tower built by somebody with zero experience in executing projects of this scale. This is the equivalent of the DOT picking a guy who lays concrete for patios to pave I-95.

Im good with more housing, but this state handles development in such a ludicrously stupid fashion that its no wonder its lagging behind. Whats their solution for TF Green Airport Stations terrible ridership? To spend even more money on giving it an Amtrak link instead of helping or pushing Warwick harder to develop around it. They fucked up Quonset, they dragged their feet with the other I-195 parcels, and now their magnum opus will be somebodys vanity project with a tenuous chance of being built.

This is dumber than Tidewater Landing, which I support, because its desperate.

It's stupid to build it there. That area is used by the people of the city.

One building will not fix our housing issue. Even if its really, really, really tall.

The only thing that will benefit from this will be this inexperienced developers portfolio.

>local markets, pridefests, beer gardens and concerts for the people

None of those things help the severe housing crisis we have that is driven by a lack of supply

>That area is used by the people of the city.

Outside of the middle of the river, this is true of literally everywhere.

And a 550 foot tower full of $3000+ a month apartments will? At best it will appeal to people of greater means that are thinking about moving here. Hopefully the expansion of Crossroads will compensate at the other extreme end of this issue. Everyone in between can just deal with it or leave.

Great cities are built on the middle class. Either build them up so they can afford the current standard of living or build housing down to suit them. Moonshot projects to entice the affluent just look good in renderings.

"Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot skyscraper"

We need housing at all price points. There's already a market demand for this right now even if people weren't still constantly moving here. That isn't going to stop anytime soon.

This problem is decades in the making and any housing solution that isn't starting with "build a metric fuck-ton more of it as fast as you possibly can" is not a solution. Just the thousand or so apartments from this, the superman building and the other South Water development are barely going to make a dent in the problem, but they will definitely help.

Even in a scenario where we aren't way behind demand and didn't need thousands of new units and they somehow aren't going to almost immediately fill this tower with renters (unlikely), if there's too much of a good flooding the market and demand has dropped, the price of that good will fall. The basic law of supply and demand is still in play.

Didn't the Dev for the superman building project think affordable housing meant a $2500 studio when asked on camera? I think you and I are the same page here but if the barrier to entry for these buildings is out of reach for most and it influences rental rates of existing buildings causing 50% or more of its occupants income to go towards housing rather than other economy-stimulating things we aren't really getting ahead.

I feel like the city wants to have nice things but cant produce an economy with a job market to sustain it. Rather they are counting on a "If you build it they will come" mentality to allure "better" citizens. To that I say "but we are here, we have seen it already and if history repeats itself we still cannot afford it."

Meh. It’s a little out of place and it does nothing to address the issues of the state but, okay whatever floats your proverbial boat.

I'm not sure what interviews were done, but I know what they already announced the price points for the Superman building. The specific numbers are escaping me, but they were fine. The only real grip with that is that it's not enough of those units, since it's only like 50-60 apartments out of 300 and most of those are on the upper-tied of what qualifies for "affordable".

As for the job market? It's still plenty strong enough and I think remote work changed the game enough where you don't necessarily need to be adding more of the white collar office jobs in Providence. People are being priced out of NYC and Boston at a much higher rate. That ain't stopping and remote work isn't going away.

In addition to the housing crisis we have no significant employment opportunities bringing high income earners to Rhode Island.

We barely have common /good paying job opportunities keeping Rhode Islanders in Rhode Island.

We are literally are building properties that will likely go dormant. meanwhile we have a homeless encampment cropping up at the State House.

I’ve done work on many of the newer buildings in that area of downtown and even I’m like “ew I don’t want this.” I’ve been hoping this goes away for years now.

It’s gonna look like garbage on the skyline imo.

The developer previously built a 47 story tower in Toronto. He has experience.

None of those things are being replaced by this tower. It’s being built in an unused corner of the park near dyer street. From what I can tell all of the areas currently used for fun activities are going to remain as is.

It was a plot of land for the 195 relocation.

It was never designated to be a park.

I know SO many people who work 2 days a week in Boston and the rest from home in PVD, or are completely remote. This is the future. The best thing PVD can do to be competitive is be livable, vibrant, dense, and fun, in order to attract more people, who in turn attract more people and jobs.

Boston is economically on fire and is insanely expensive. We’re the only nice city commuteable to Boston offering a true urban experience.

I'm OOTL...what's the deal with the height? Seems to me that things like capacity and cost are more important than height, but the fact that the height is called out in the headline makes it seem there's more to the story that I'm missing.

Just that it would be the new tallest and some people don't like that?

I love that suddenly they are “inexperienced”. Seems like grasping at straws to hate a project.

And there isn’t demand according to who?

The condos that go up for sale in the Omni and Waterplace are sold almost immediately. The apartments built downtown fill up rather quickly.

Also, companies don’t often relocate places where there is a lack of housing stock. Considering the Jewelry District is hoping to attract research jobs, a big ole apt building is actually a great thing.

Ding ding ding the foot print isn’t big. Also, it was always meant for development.

And yet it doesn’t make anything worse! You left that part out.

How many other apartment buildings with this many units have been built in PVD?

Except it IS going to make things worse???

There’s a lot of development and redevelopment happening but if the community at large can’t partake then what is it gonna matter if there’s that many units?

The median household income is 50k in providence. That’s not nearly enough to afford rent in that place. So who is going to live there?????

Except it IS going to make things worse???

There’s a lot of development and redevelopment happening but if the community at large can’t partake then what is it gonna matter if there’s that many units?

The median household income is 50k in providence. That’s not nearly enough to afford rent in that place. So who is going to live there?????

Both buildings are important to the future of Providence

But tbf that area in particular is one of the best locations for that kind of thing in the city. The whole river walk culminating in the pedestrian bridge is a perfect meeting place/event spot.

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Would you rather there be no housing built? Or a 3 story apartment building? That’ll show em.

There’s a shortage of inventory across the entire housing sector. Which is why most of those buildings downtown are full. There’s not enough inventory.

It’s waterfront and downtown - nowhere in the world is that where cheap apartments get built.

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"Unused"?

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You should visit a place called "Europe" — they have cities there too ...

Yes. Nobody spends time in the park along Dyer Street. Why would they when they can be by the river? It’s a dead zone.

Wikipedia has an entry for the proposed tower, with an embedded map of the location: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Point_Tower

Pretty neat, I don't think I had noticed that on Wikipedia before.

It also gives an option to open the location in a different map site/app, here's Google if you'd prefer: https://www.google.com/maps/place/41%C2%B049'15.0%22N+71%C2%B024'28.0%22W/@41.8208333,-71.4077778,13z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d41.8208333!4d-71.4077778?hl=en

Can you help me understand the issue with its height? To me, it seems like height is the best answer for adding housing units in a dense city like we have, but I also don't really know much about this project at all.

This is very much a chicken or the egg situation --

You really think people who can afford 3K in rent want to live in Downtown providence? For realsies? Those people are buying 500,000K+ homes on the coast.

and also it's not "waterfront" it's riverfront, at best.

You clearly don’t know the market. Waterplace and the Omni residences have incredible demand. The Nightingale opened less than 2 years ago and is one of the more expensive apt buildings (one bedrooms are min $2300). It has 9-10 open units in a 150 unit building.

For someone who seems to be so snarky about living downtown, not sure how this negatively affects you so much.

Oh, pretty sure rivers are water.

I mean, if you look at their "Chaz Yorkville" on their website they seem to have built a 47 story tower in Toronto.

Agreed it will look ridiculous mostly because there’s no other tall buildings around it and probably never will be. If there were a few skyscrapers here it would start to look like a second downtown and Fane would be much less offensive, but just one tower does look really odd.

Let’s not act like “the people” go to pride fests and beer gardens. I think you mean “upper middle class white people”

It is grasping. The city is growing and going taller conserves space. The tower will add population density and foot traffic in in the area to support local businesses just like the Superman building. Is not like either of these spaces are exiting green spaces to protect or are going to demo historic buildings

And at no point have these high end, luxury apts relieved the housing squeeze for the rest of us. Incredibly, it seems to make every slumlord think they can charge even more for their apt.

So what makes you think this time will be different?

Housing prices in a city or state will not change based on a small number of projects (most of what’s been built recently downtown are 4-5 story buildings too, small).

The housing availability downtown was already bad, so they are simply fill in already existing pent up demand (which is why these newer buildings are filling quickly).

This is a much larger project in terms of volume, but the years and years of resistance isn’t helping. This project won’t be done for a while, so not gonna affect any prices now.

Also, the coined “luxury high end” is simply not true - it’s all marketed that way. As someone who’s lived in major cities, they aren’t that fancy.

They are, however, apartments in a desirable downtown area in a city. Those will never be “cheap”. People on here seem to think living in the heart of downtown in a new apartment should cost $1200/month. That’s not really how real estate works.

PVD needs bigger residential projects in other areas of the city.

>Waterplace and the Omni residences have incredible demand. The Nightingale opened less than 2 years ago and is one of the more expensive apt buildings (one bedrooms are min $2300). It has 9-10 open units in a 150 unit building.

This is a weak argument. If there was truly high demand for luxury apartments in downtown, there would be zero open units (and a waiting list) in the 150 unit building that you're referencing.

It’s not typical for apartments to go from 0-full in a very short period - people are in 12+ month leases elsewhere. Also, they have lease turnover constantly. It’s not to say 10 open units have been sitting there empty since it opened. It could be 10 units that are coming up on an open lease but aren’t open right now.

Plus, you can buy condos for the same price as a mortgage - hence the high demand in those other buildings.

Like it or not, there’s demand.