Assuming what you’re saying is rooted in actual data and fact and not just an overall wild assumption, how exactly is that progress for this city? What does having another place for rich people to live do to better the lives of everyone else?

This statement is pretty easily debunked. Boston has grown their housing downtown at an exponential rate in the past ten years and housing costs have continued to grow regardless of the supply.

Minimal amounts of research would have brought you to this conclusion but you’ve opted to do zero.

Luxury buildings like this are a fishtank for rich people. They would live in Providence anyway. With this tower, they will be contained in one spot and not compete for lower tier housing.

Will this be luxury or affordable?

Thanks for the most rational argument against this I've heard so far. I'm not familiar with the 195 commission guidelines or how they were arrived at, but I'd like to learn more. My pet peeve is all the zoning restrictions and yet every project seems to get a variance. Either decide the zoning should change, or follow the rules!

Unless the increase in the quantity of housing creates an increase in the quantity demanded for housing (which would be exceedingly unusual), increasing the supply of a good reduces the the value, and thus the cost, of all goods on the market.

To break it down, someone moves here from Boston. They decide to live in the fane tower instead of outbidding a local on a nice place in fox point. As a result, the local is no longer outbidding locals in slightly less desirable (and pricy) neighborhoods. Etc…

There is literally zero legitimate controversy on the topic - increasing the quantity of housing available lowers the cost of housing. Period.

Best case for this it becomes like Carnegie Tower in Portsmouth. Built and opened right before a major housing slump, high vacancy rates, takes a decade to start attracting a decent volume of tenants mostly seeking speculative ownership, no long term impact or adjustment to state/local development trajectory.

People forget that when that 195 land became available, it was supposed to be a flood of business building. It's been a trickle and an underwhelming one at that. The main take away has been that even with prime city land up for grabs, few want to do business with providence or RI.

Spot on. People don't seem to understand that any new housing is good for affordability.

Providence is behind the ball because it hasnt developed a strong economic niche outside of being a satellite within the Boston Urban Area. A lot of its growth is the result of spillovers from Bostons strong growth and housing boom.

The tower doesnt change that dynamic to be more sustainable for RI, it just doubles down. When I-195 was moved to make way for that parcel the rationale was that the land would be used to attract new business opportunities and create an incubator for a stronger biotech niche. The 20 years of development failure since then have at best yielded 5 over 1s and a Trader Joes, or expanded/new office space for existing economic fixtures (Brown). Its better than nothing, but not good considering thats the scale of development that some suburbs achieve in their downtowns. Fane reads like a wild moonshot to try and get something to be proud of.

Rhode Islands state officials just suck at development, or perhaps they think its easy. 195 reads to me like somebody trying to emulate the aesthetics of a successful economic development strategy without understanding how to get there. Youre right that RI consistently, regularly falls behind at every turn. Quonset, Tiverton, and Newport are all cases where a casino venture could have been well executed, but that ship sailed. Hell, this parcel would have been great for a casino if Encore hadn’t been built.

In my opinion a good place to start smashing zoning and developing is Warwick and Pawtucket. Jefferson Boulevard is full of wasted potential and its a shame that its train station is basically going to waste.

The same ones who call this an eyesore would cry if they took down that nasty bridge that’s stuck up.

And while it may be too close to 95 for Mr. Fane, that one the city presumably owns.

Affordability is mostly a matter of supply and demand. Most new construction isn't affordable the same way most new cars aren't affordable, but there won't be used cars on the market if no one buys the new ones. This will lower rents across the city as rich people move here instead of outbidding you on what should be cheaper places. This explains it well.

My take is sure why the hell not?

The tax breaks are bullshit but we're up to our eyeballs in that bullshit, blocking this to fight tax breaks is using a tiki drink umbrella to stop the rain

sell it then

No way the state needs to be in the homeless business

There is also the parking lot across from the civic center that was supposed to be a tower (former public safety complex).

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Big tower good

I like the design, if it'll bring more money to the city and state then let's go for it. I'm getting tired of driving to Massachusetts to make a decent wage

I think that by now, we should all be aware that the I-195 commission is just a bunch of crooks giving valuable property away to their rich friends. (Either that or they are shit business people, either way we got fucked)

https://www.golocalprov.com/business/the-195-commission-blasted-for-raiding-downtown-businesses-paolino-calls-me

This was supposed to be green space https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/07/21/taxpayer-financed-providence-pavilion-downtown-restaurant-owners-angry-threat-business/10085804002/

The land for trader Joes got sold at $100,000

https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/10-years-later-old-195-land-is-getting-developed-but-land-sales-fall-far-short/

Crooks fighting over who is going to do the crookery http://www.gcpvd.org/2018/10/03/wpri-senate-president-wants-to-strip-providence-of-zoning-oversight-on-195-land/

You can't use the normal outlet that is probably currently behind the gas stove, you would need a direct line from the panel with 220v and a dedicated 40-50amp breaker for induction. However, if you have a duel fuel range currently, gas stovetop with electric oven, then you wouldn't have to do anything since that electric line is already there, just shut off the gas valve and plug in the new induction range.

where exactly is this proposed to be?

This guy urbanists.

This is good how it's supposed to work. If you claim to be a capitalist, then the market will take care of the pricing. Yes, we need more affordable units, but blocking housing projects is not going to make them appear suddenly

I think the state did its usual of being so desperate for a quick boon they picked whoever schmoozed them enough. It reeks of something like a 38 Studios deal, where at least the studio delivered a good product but their finances were junk.

Has this tower secured financing? Because to me the shallow work list of the developer (they did a tower 10 years ago) combined with increasing interest rates would flag them as a high risk applicant for something of this scale in a city that doesnt yet have this scale.

As a city, Providence appeals a lot to people who work in Boston and want to save a bit on rent without going full suburb. A luxury tower doesn’t really mesh with that dynamic well.

Thank you