What's future of the Cranston Street Armory? Here's what a consultant thinks

PROVIDENCE — To enter the 115-year-old urban castle they hope to renovate, Lindsey Scannapieco and Everett Abitbol descend a ramp beneath the towering yellow ramparts and jump over a small pool of opaque green water to reach the basement cargo entrance.

"This is the moat," Scannapieco says with a chuckle as she enters the basement of the Cranston Street Armory, a building the State of Rhode Island has spent decades trying to find a use for.

Scannapieco is managing partner and Abitbol is director of development for Scout Ltd., the Philadelphia-based company Rhode Island hired to come up with a reuse plan for the Armory after previous redevelopment studies triggered objections and sticker shock.

Scout was ramping up community engagement on its ideas this month when Gov. Dan McKee's administration found a temporary use for the Armory that thrust the building back into the spotlight: a 24-hour "warming station" for people living on the street.

The move to use the Armory as a shelter through at least April 15 scuttled Scout's plans to hold a World Cup soccer watch party in the building to get the community interested in the space and ideas to reuse it.

And sports are central to Scout's vision, which includes turning the main drill hall into an indoor recreation area.

Scout's Armory mantra is to "use a light-touch approach," or as Scannapieco describes it: "What is already here and how can we make that work?"

That approach is reflected in the big project Scout did before taking on the Armory, redeveloping a 300,000-square-foot former Philadelphia vocational high school into BOK, a "space for makers, nonprofits, small businesses, and artists."

And it is in part a reaction to previous studies of the building, which suggested big changes at steep costs were needed to make the building functional.

A 2016 Peregrine Group report estimated it would cost $100 million to renovate the building, and even then its commercial value would be limited. Scout projects the kind of renovation Peregrine looked at could cost as much as $160 million at today's construction costs.

In 2018, urban design consultants Utile wrestled with how to add the extra elevators and stairwells required by modern fire code. Possibilities included new structures built in the middle of the drill hall or stairs climbing the exterior, marring the Medieval appearance for preservationists.

Even without a big construction project, the state spent an average of $1 million per year maintaining the Armory from 2014 to 2019. And demolishing it would also be expensive.

In what they see as a phased, gradual approach to getting people back in the building, Scout wants to build a new "bleacher-like entrance ramp connecting the drill hall to fields and playgrounds of the Dexter Training Ground. And in the drill hall itself, they would lay down turf to create an open indoor recreation area with concessions.

After getting people using the drill hall, they would turn their attention to the two towers, the upper floors of which are now effectively unusable. They hope to eventually lease it out as small offices and work spaces.

The offices will have to remain small, with no more than 50 people per floor, to comply with fire code.

Built in 1907, the Cranston Street Armory was home to Rhode Island National Guard regiments and hosted events — from Gov. John Chafee's inauguration to a New England Patriots' practice — until it began to fall into disrepair in the 1980s and was closed to the public. The Guard moved out in 1996 and the building has been sparsely used since.

The State Fire Marshal had offices there for several years and the Board of Elections used it for storage, but its most notable use was as a set for several films and television shows, recently "NOS4@2" and "Hocus Pocus 2."

One of several armories across the state, the 190,000-square-foot Cranston Street Armory is the largest and most visually distinctive.

The empty six-story towers flanking the central drill hall have become a landmark for the city's West Side in much the same way the vacant Superman Building is for downtown or the derelict Crook Point bascule bridge for the East Side.

Unlike those landmarks, the Armory also forms a kind of junction point between gentrifying Providence and the working-class neighborhoods south of Cranston Street.

As part of his campaign pledge to save money by consolidating state property, Gov. Lincoln Chafee pledged to move three state agencies into the Armory. But faced with the high cost of turning it into modern office space he abandoned that idea after taking office and looked for alternatives.

His successor Gina Raimondo was unable to settle on a plan after seven years in office, but the state budget was tighter in the post-recession years.

Now McKee is working with a $600-million projected surplus.

To move ahead with their plan, Scout needs to come to a development agreement with the McKee administration, which would likely mean money in the governor's January budget proposal.

Abitbol, a URI graduate, said the "light touch" approach could get the building occupied for less than half the inflation-adjusted $160-million Peregrine estimate.

And it should make the Armory "cost neutral" to the state or better within seven years, he said. Whatever lease arrangement is worked out between the Scout and the state, the building would remain state owned, the Scout team said.

Scout's video promoting "Armory El Castillo" features Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and Providence Mayor-elect Brett Smiley, suggesting a new level of political support.

State Sen. Sam Bell has argued for the creation of a public board similar to the Convention Center Authority to oversee the Armory and approve decisions about its use.

"I'm excited and optimistic we can get something done and would like to see it happen," Bell said Friday. "The broad vision of a light touch is something the community is behind."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: The future of the Cranston Street Armory