The owner of the former Carvel building at the west end of Airport Road on Post Road was the only bidder for nearly an acre of vacant state land between Pell Avenue and Guilford Drive at an auction Tuesday at the property. David Corsetti of DNC Holdings LLC bid $400,000 although Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers that ran the auction projected minimum bid for the land was $447,000.

“I only took interest because I bought the land in the front. I was hoping bidding would start at a lot less,” Corsetti said in an interview after the event. The land and four houses was brought by the state when the airport was still a division of the Department of Transportation. The houses were within the high noise contour and demolished, leaving the open land that has become a neighborhood de-facto park. The condition that the property not be used for residential development follows the property. Yet the land is zoned residential and Corsetti will need to gain a rezoning if it is to be used commercially. Corsetti said Tuesday he would work with the neighborhood on the eventual use of the land although at this point he doesn’t know what that would be.

Don Ed Realty Corp. sold the Carvel property on Jan. 9, 2020 to DNC Holdings LLC for $950,000, according to city records.

Corsetti said he bought the Carvel property with the intention of developing it for a tenant. He still does not have a tenant at this time, and can’t say what the future of the land will be.

When asked what he plans to rezone the land for, Corsetti just shook his head.

“This is probably the first time I’ve focused on this land. We haven’t done much,” he said, referencing the Carvel lot, but indicated that he will use the two parcels of land in conjunction with one another.

Assuming the sale is consummated, proceeds would go to the Rhode Island Airport Corporation for improvement in keeping with Federal Aviation Administration requirements.