PROPOSED: OneEleven Fountain (Fogarty Bldg.)

[Cotuit]

Channel 12 reported tonight that the Fogarty Building has been sold, and will be developed into a hotel. Work will begin this summer.

How many hotels are we gonna have!?

[AriPVD]

Wow! That's pretty surprising! We've gotta find some confirmation...

[provid]

Which again is the Fogarty Building?

[Soren]

I'm confused too, mostly because the history of potential development of the old police and fire building is so often mentioned in conjunction with the Fogarty Building. Is it the old police and fire building, (excellent photos at ArtInRuin):

http://www.artinruins.com/arch/decay/policestation/index.php

Or is it the ugly building across from the Palmer Block, a corner of which can be seen in the foreground of this picture, also at ArtInRuins:

http://www.artinruins.com/arch/redevelop/palmer/index.php

For some history, here's a great thread here at UP:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3715

I hope it is the one opposite the Palmer Block. And if so, look for the remaining units there to finally sell.

[Cotuit]

I hope it is the one opposite the Palmer Block.  And if so, look for the remaining units there to finally sell.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, that's the one. The abandoned building across from the Convention Centre, between the Blue Cross Building and the ProJo building. For a while it served as a high school, until the windows started falling out, one falling in and striking a student.

[Frankie811]

Yes, that's the one. The abandoned building across from the Convention Centre, between the Blue Cross Building and the ProJo building. For a while it served as a high school, until the windows started falling out, one falling in and striking a student.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does anyone know who bought it? Could this be the development news that we are to hear next week?

[Cotuit]

Does anyone know who bought it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't quite catch the name on the news last night, it sound like Capital Hill-something, could Carpianato (however you spell that).

Could this be the development news that we are to hear next week?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could be.

[billypc99]

My sources tell me that they are talking about a decent size tower!

[Cotuit]

My sources tell me that they are talking about a decent size tower!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mesolella's plans called for a Westin sized tower with a skybridge to the Convention Centre across Sabin Street.

[provid]

I know the projo is acorss from the Convention Centrer so I still can't picture this building...

[provid]

Oh! do they mean that nasty 60's concert fortress looking building? Wow I walked past that yesterday and thought how much that place needs to come down.

[glassandsteel]

Yup.

[provid]

What a great prjotect.

Providence is becoming the city of hotels and skybridges

[Soren]

No kidding. The Fogarty building is my vote for "Best Candidate for High Explosive Testing" in downcity. Bring on the bulldozers!

My adaptive re-use hat seems to be at the dry cleaners.

[Frankie811]

No kidding. The Fogarty building is my vote for "Best Candidate for High Explosive Testing" in downcity.  Bring on the bulldozers!

My adaptive re-use hat seems to be at the dry cleaners.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wouldn't have been great if we had an overhead rail system connecting all the hotels with the convention center and the mall. I think Indianapolis has something like that. Does anyone know?

[Cotuit]

Wouldn't have been great if we had an overhead rail system connecting all the hotels with the convention center and the mall.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Providence's downtown core is so small, that's not really needed. The way development is going now, we could soon be able to have people to walk from the Masonic Temple, enter the mall at the State House, then walk all the way to the Holiday Inn without going outside.

We have the skybridge to the Westin now, the Westin connects to the Convention Centre, the Convention Centre may be connected to the Dunk, and the proposal for the Holiday Inn calls for the possibity of connecting it to the Dunk, plus this proposal for the Fogarty site may have a skybridge as well.

[Frankie811]

Providence's downtown core is so small, that's not really needed. The way development is going now, we could soon be able to have people to walk from the Masonic Temple, enter the mall at the State House, then walk all the way to the Holiday Inn without going outside.

We have the skybridge to the Westin now, the Westin connects to the Convention Centre, the Convention Centre may be connected to the Dunk, and the proposal for the Holiday Inn calls for the possibity of connecting it to the Dunk, plus this proposal for the Fogarty site may have a skybridge as well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Skywalks and bridges are important according to convention and meeting experts. Apparently convention planners prefer to have their attendees in hotels attached to a convention center. This is a plus for Providence.

[Cotuit]

Skywalks and bridges are important according to convention and meeting experts. Apparently convention planners prefer to have their attendees in hotels attached to a convention center. This is a plus for Providence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They indeed do prefer the hotel to be attached to the convention centre, it's an area were New York City of all places is lacking. Convention Centre hotels are also expensive to build because the conventioneers demand a large amount of meeting space within the hotel. Usually a hotel jams as many rooms as possible into it's building, because that is where the money comes from. These meeting rooms don't bring in as much money per square foot, but they are a requirement of a good convention centre hotel. Hartford is breathing down our neck with their new convention centre, we need to be sure we have the rooms needed to compete with them. We can also compete with Boston, and even with New York.

[Soren]

To echo Cotuit, Providence needs to be able to compete with other convention venues if the downtown convention center is to be viable. I had heard the main reason Providence is not currently competitive is because of a lack of hotel rooms in the city. It seems to me this is being quickly remedied.

[DaveRPI]

makes you wonder about that Gtech hotel...

did they foresee all this activity and pull out... or... did they not see this and said that it wouldnt work???? hmm

[Cotuit]

makes you wonder about that Gtech hotel...

did they foresee all this activity and pull out... or... did they not see this and said that it wouldnt work???? hmm

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A lot of this was floating around in the air at the time that GTECH decided to pull out of it's hotel. When they proposed it, the Masonic Temple was just a proposal, and there have been 80 years of 'proposals' there. But they pulled out after it became a reality. It was also pretty much certain that a second convention centre hotel would be built somewhere, and a handful of other 'proposals.'

What GTECH was to build though, was an extended stay hotel where they could host people for weeks at a time. None of the current proposals fill that need. What GTECH would probably be best off doing is buying a few condos at Parcel 2 or someplace else to host their longterm guests.

[Garris]

Wow, fascinating topic everyone. The Fogarty Building is a prime candidate for redevelopment and the location for a convention center hotel there is perfect. Very nice, very nice...

Frankie811: Wouldn't have been great if we had an overhead rail system connecting all the hotels with the convention center and the mall.

I don't think so... As Cotuit mentioned, Providence is waaay to small. You'll be able to walk from the Masonic Temple Hotel to the Fogarty Hotel in 10-15 minutes or less... Minneapolis, for weather reasons, has skyways connecting everything in the downtown core, and there are some who feel it draws folks away from ground level retail and up into less community building skyway retail. Not something we want now...

DaveRPI: did they foresee all this activity and pull out... or... did they not see this and said that it wouldnt work???? hmm

Isn't that the 700 million dollar question . My guess? Probably a bit of both... They might also have realized that Cotuit's outstanding idea of just buying a few neighboring condo units was orders of magnitude cheaper for them. That's what many large companies do. My previous employer in Minnesota did this and was quite happy with the arrangement.

- Garris

[Cotuit]

The GTECH hotel was kind of part of their agreement with the state however. I'm not sure if they were mandated to do it or not though. Likely they just said they would and the state was too dumb to get a signature on the matter. When they pulled out of the Union Station hotel, they said they were still interested in "investing" in a hotel in the future. They have a lot of investments to choose from.

Having space in the new Westin tower is another option to buying condos at Waterplace.

[DaveRPI]

why buy the cow when the milk is free??? have a good weekend!

[ArtInRuins]

Having space in the new Westin tower is another option to buying condos at Waterplace.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And there is another hotel development rumor floating around. I've heard some folks mention that one section of the newly redeveloped Foundry mill complex (Brown and Sharpe) will be a boutique hotel instead of more condos... the section closest to the highway, across from the mall. Maybe the developer saw the need for hotel rooms and decided to diversify the building with long term and short term housing.