Wildes Corner is going to change…again.
There will be a newcomer in the vicinity of the intersection of West Shore Road, Sandy Lane and Strawberryfield Road and former building sites will sprout …
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Wildes Corner is going to change…again.
There will be a newcomer in the vicinity of the intersection of West Shore Road, Sandy Lane and Strawberryfield Road and former building sites will sprout new structures.
The new business location in front of Benny’s next to the Verizon telephone building will be a Taco Bell restaurant.
Depending on approvals, which David Lockwood hopes can be finalized in the next month, the restaurant could be up and operational by this summer.
“We’re very excited about coming to Warwick and serving our passionate customers,” said Lockwood, president of Lockwood McKinnon Group of Mansfield, Mass. that owns and operates 24 Taco Bell restaurants, 13 of them in Rhode Island. The 2,000-square foot-restaurant will create about 50 new jobs with 10 to 15 of those part-time jobs, said Lockwood.
But that’s just part of the changes coming to an area that has a rich history of retail businesses.
A larger development is planned for the adjoining property that was once the site of a Newport Creamery and most recently was Boat World. Developer Frank Paolino of Link Commercial Properties of Cranston plans to build two retail buildings with a total of 17,765 square feet on the 7.7-acre site. The buildings were razed last year. Plans filed with the Planning Department show one of the buildings would be a 7,225-square-foot store with the second building subdivided into three or four retail spaces.
City Planning Department staff has worked closely with both developers and endorses the transition to the busy intersection and potential future development.
“It’s been very good to work with Frank [Paolino],” said Patricia Reynolds of the planning department, who shepherds development projects through the various municipal reviews and permitting process. Planners point to the projects Paolino has done in other communities such as the CVS on Route 2 in East Greenwich as examples of the quality of his work.
City Planner William DePasquale commends Reynolds for guiding developers through the review process while being sensitive to the community. Rarely are plans approved as initially presented even when a project is properly zoned and meeting building code regulations. In the case of Wildes Corner, planners are looking to sustain a viable business environment while addressing such issues as traffic, environmental impacts and aesthetics.
DePasquale said both developments are consistent with the comprehensive master plan, yet there are opportunities to bring improvements.
“It’s a slow slog in and around Wildes Corner,” he said.
Contributing to that are the number of curb cuts and the need for businesses to have access to Route 117. Under ideal circumstances, planners would like to aggregate traffic, thus reducing curb cuts, and provide business access from an internal roadway as is done at Chapel View in Cranston on a far larger scale.
Planners suggested doing this between the Benny’s and Paolino properties but it wasn’t viable at this time.
“You get two property owners together and both come out ahead of the game,” DePasquale said.
Ideally, DePasquale favors a mixed-use development of Wildes Corner with retail, which it already has, with the addition of office and services such as a daycare facility. He questions what will become of the site next to the Dunkin Donuts, once a strip shopping center until there was a fire and the entire plaza was leveled. There are no proposals for a development at that location at this time.
Setting the standard, says DePasquale, has been the transition of the north corner of the intersection with the replacement of a used car business and garage with a TD Bank branch office and a new adjoining Burger King.
A traffic study prepared by VHB on behalf of Paolino last fall concluded that traffic volumes projected to be generated by the development are “not expected to have a significant impact on traffic operations at the study area intersections.” The study further finds the increase in traffic “is well within the daily fluctuations in traffic on the study area roadways.”
In granting master plan approval, the board listed a number of stipulations. It required that the developer submit a stormwater management plan; that in an effort to improve water quality entering Brush Neck Cove and Greenwich Bay that it maximize and help restore a more natural hydrologic cycle to Tuscatucket Brook; and that all necessary state permits be obtained before returning to the board for preliminary plan approval. The property does not require a change of zone or City Council approval.
The preliminary plan will indicate the location of driveways as well as a landscape plan. The board also stipulates that the project be limited to retail use with no restaurants or drive-thru without administrative or Planning Board review and approval.
As for the planners’ ideal development of the corners, DePasquale says what is envisioned and what is possible must be balanced. The market influence, he says, can’t be ignored for a development to be viable and sustainable.
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richardcorrente
Bill DePasquale continues to show exemplary leadership. It's obvious that he has been the person who spearheaded this project and he is clearly the reason it is moving along so smoothly.
Well done Bill. Well done.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Thursday, March 17, 2016 Report this
Justanidiot
Great, another fast food joint.
Just what the doctor ordered for our ailing city.
Thursday, March 17, 2016 Report this
davebarry109
Great job Bill!!! Only one comment. I've never heard of a project wherein the traffic study did not indicate a negative affect on the traffic volume. It's always 'not expected to impact the traffic'. C'mon.
Thursday, March 17, 2016 Report this
HerbTokerman
A fast food joint is probably one of the few businesses that would work in that location.
Doherety's ale house was going to be there but it would have been way too far off the highway and it probably would have gone out of business, the current location right off 95 was a much better place for that.
Taco bell isn't that popular that it's going to cause any more traffic than there already is.
And anything is better than the lot just sitting there vacant being an eyesore.
Thursday, March 17, 2016 Report this
gijoe1958
I have found all the personal in our Warwick Building Department to be friendly, easy to work with and very helpful with the process. I commend their professionalism.
Sunday, March 20, 2016 Report this
TheSkipper
Hey they ought to build the quintessential RI business A combination Hair/barber shop, convenience store,wieners, pizza,ambulance chasing lawyers, auto-body,tanning,cell-phone,mechanic,tattoo parlor, bank, gas station and doughnut shop!.........Oh wait a minute.......All that CRAP is already within walking distance.
Monday, March 21, 2016 Report this
newenglandah
I can't stand the idea of this place going in here, study or not traffic is horrible there now. Nevermind now having a late night drinking crowd pulling in and out on that corner. Plus this are doesn't need another junk fast food place. Doughety's would have been better esp being a local chain with different food, a lot.of people dont even know Doughety's is in Warwick because its in such a poor location. T-Bell should be in the Post Rd area not here. Give the locals something better, Fat Bellys, Doughety's, Brewed Awakenings, Ocean State sandwich comp. a decent internet cafe or decent food, not all hours traffic and gross food.
Monday, March 21, 2016 Report this