Developer abandons apartment building proposal in Jewelry District

A Florida developer has abandoned plans for a 12-story modular apartment building in Providence's Jewelry District to focus on winning a contract to build a new state health laboratory.

The building proposed in 2019 by Pebb Capital would have stood at 155 Chestnut St., the current site of a small office building and parking lot purchased from tax-credit broker Michael Corso.

The original design would have included 131 apartments over ground-floor shops and other commercial space. It had no off-street parking.

Pebb was planning to take advantage of federal "Opportunity Zone" tax breaks on the development and a city tax treaty that was never approved.

"Pebb Capital has decided to allow the entitlements to expire for 155 Chestnut Street ... " Pebb spokeswoman Suzanne Perez-Bernal wrote in an email, "in order to focus its attention on its larger development site located at 31, 41-51 Bassett Street, which is currently a finalist for the pending Rhode Island Department of Health RFP."

Although it may not have been everyone's cup of tea, the design was complemented for at least being a departure from the squat, blocky 4-to-6-story apartment buildings that have proliferated in recent years.

But despite giving the building positive marks for appearance, Jewelry District neighbors objected to the development and sued the city, successfully, to chop three stories off the building height.

But Perez-Bernal said the litigation and neighborhood opposition were not major factors in the decision to abandon the proposal.

The health lab development "is the first piece of their multi-parcel development plan in the jewelry district, and it is a strategic, long-term opportunity to focus on this asset first," she said.

Pebb was also seeking a tax treaty for the Chestnut Street apartment building that would have saved $4 million over 15 years.

But although the proposed tax treaty was referred to a City Council committee in February, 2021, no action had been taken on it when Pebb pulled the plug on the apartment building.

Pebb was one of four developers to bid on building the state health lab and the only one not to propose using a piece of the state's former Route 195 land.

The winning bidder was slated to be announced sometime in the "summer."

panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Developer abandons Jewelry District apartment building