Proposed Federal Hill skyscraper on tap tonight

Dan Barbarisi offers a deeper look today at the proposed Federal Hill tower that I touched upon last week. The concept will be the subject of a meeting at 7 tonight of the Providence City Council's Public Works Committee. Providence will benefit from greater density, but I'm not convinced that putting such a huge project in this kind of neighborhood is the way to go.

Here are a few of the highlights from the ProJo story:

PROVIDENCE — A local developer is proposing a 33-story luxury condominium tower on Federal Hill with up to 180 units, but the $80-million project will need numerous approvals and could be four to five years away in the best-case scenario.

When completed, the tower would be one of the city’s tallest buildings, and the only skyscraper outside the city’s downtown area. At 330 feet high, it would be twice the size of the Dominica Manor building next door, and roughly equal to the tower under construction at the Westin Providence hotel.

. . . .

The project is the brainchild of Frank Zammiello, who rose from a start as an Olneyville electrician to head a powerful real estate company and now splits his time between Providence and Florida. Zammiello has developed the Bridlewood Estates in Lincoln and a 438-unit condo project in Highland Beach, Fla., among others, and owns Northstar Aviation Fueling, at T.F. Green Airport.

In 1986, Zammiello and his family pledged more than $6 million to secure a pretrial release for New England mob boss Raymond J. “Junior” Patriarca, when he was facing racketeering charges. Zammiello and Patriarca had worked together on real estate deals.

Zammiello also owns Camille’s restaurant, formerly Camille’s Roman Garden, which he purchased in 2001.

. . . .

Several neighborhood groups are opposing the tower, worried about its height and effect on the neighborhood, while other advocacy groups are opposed to the abandonment of Bradford Street at this early a stage in the process.

“It would open the floodgates to more extremely tall and massive buildings that would tower over and shade out the existing buildings and, over time, completely change the character of our neighborhood from one that is walkable and human scale to the scale of major high-rise cities like New York,” wrote Kari Lang, director of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, in an e-mail circulated to encourage opposition to the project.

Jef Nickerson, president of Greater City: Providence, a group that promotes dense, walkable and affordable development in Providence, questioned whether the city should abandon Bradford Street when the project has so many steps ahead.