Some questions, few oppose $48M Crowne Plaza project

By John Howell
Posted 4/12/16

By JOHN HOWELL

There were cookies, coffee and fresh-cut fruit in an attractive display as you walked through the door. But it was what was at the other end of the room that attracted a handful of …

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Some questions, few oppose $48M Crowne Plaza project

Posted

By JOHN HOWELL

There were cookies, coffee and fresh-cut fruit in an attractive display as you walked through the door. But it was what was at the other end of the room that attracted a handful of Greenwood residents who braved a torrential downpour to visit the Crowne Plaza hotel Thursday evening.

On easels were a series of plans and aerial photographs showing the hotel, the lawn in front of the hotel, and the Route 5 and East Avenue intersection. Plans showed a rectangular building to the east of the hotel, a new wing for an additional 100 rooms on the hotel, and two office buildings from near the intersection on Route 5 extending south toward the hotel property entrance.

“I don’t see how this is going to make the property better,” questioned Mitchell Feinstein, who has lived across the street on Chapmans Avenue for the past 17 years.

That’s not the way Carpionato Properties, which owns the hotel and proposes the multi-million development, sees it.

K. Joseph Shekarchi, the attorney representing Carpionato, said the proposal for a medical facility – which remained unnamed but is believed to be the Laser Spine Institute – will mean “good quality jobs.” In addition, he said the development would put what is now state-owned land on city tax rolls, is in compliance with city zoning, and is a low generator of traffic. Shekarchi called the development a “good investment.”

“But we don’t need another investment,” Feinstein argued.

There’s more to the proposal, which comes before the Planning Board tomorrow night at 6 in the lower conference room in City Hall.

Kelly Coates, senior vice president of Carpionato Properties, pointed out that the Federal Highway Administration has approved direct access to the site from the eastbound lane of East Avenue, thereby eliminating much of the traffic that accesses the hotel from Route 5. Coates opened the discussion, explaining that legislation dubbed “medical tourism” is driving this phase of development on a site that was once a sand and gravel operation. Under the legislation introduced by Warwick Rep. Joseph McNamara, new medical facilities that can show that more than 50 percent of their patients are from out of state don’t require a certificate of need from the Department of Health. That process can be long and costly and possibly unsuccessful.

Coates said the medical building, which would be about 35,000 square feet, would likely perform spinal work. The plan is for the other two buildings to likewise take advantage of medical tourism legislation, offering specialized procedures that would bring patients from out of state to Warwick. The hotel would provide lodging for patients and their families during the period leading up to and the recovery period after the procedures, which he put at a total of three days.

Coates said the two office buildings, the ones that Feinstein had issues with, would not be built on speculation, and only when a tenant is committed would construction start. They would be two-story buildings with some retail on the first floor. Coates suggested a restaurant, but nothing like a Taco Bell.

“It could be some years. We’re going to do this in an orderly basis,” he said of the two office buildings. Carpionato would also buy a pie-shaped five acres from the state that is now part of the lawn in front of the Crowne to complete the project.

As this would be an addition to the hotel property, the project would require City Council approval to extend the current zoning. Also, under plans approved in 1979, Carpionato is permitted to build two buildings on the land with 120,000 square feet of space. The developer is looking to modify that to three buildings with a total of 121,000 square feet. According to studies done for Carpionato at the city’s request, the fully developed site would mean an additional $46.7 million in assessed values, generating about $1.45 million in added tax revenues.

With approvals in place, Coates said construction of the medical facility and hotel addition would likely start this summer and be completed in about a year.

Coates urged Greenwood residents to voice their concerns so that city planners could take those issues into consideration. He said that fencing separating an enclave of single-family homes abutting the hotel entrance would be replaced, and he was alarmed to hear a hotel van had cut through the Greenwood neighborhood. He gave out his cell phone and urged people to call him should that happen again because “they’ll be fired.”

Coates also proposed landscaping, even on Feinstein’s property should he chose, to screen the development from residential Greenwood.

One Greenwood resident protested that the development would turn the area into another Route 2.

“The retail will be a small element,” countered Coates, “this is nothing like Route 2.”

Greenwood Commons resident Paul Squeglia was encouraged by what he saw. He questioned Carpionato’s plans for 280 units of luxury condominiums for the area south of the hotel. Coates said that development is on hold pending market demand, but that it remains in the plan.

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