Friday, January 11, 2008

The ProJo's Dan Barbarisi does a good job today in teasing out some of the dissonance regarding the historic Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse (1929) behind Providence Place, and Carpionato Properties' plans to raze the property.

If you're a mayor in a cash-strapped city, it's tough to not like developers, and it seems clear that David Cicilline signed off on the demo plan:

On Dec. 28, [Providence building official Kerry Anderson] issued a letter declaring the site unsafe and instructed Carpionato to procure a demolition permit as soon as possible.

But top state authorities say Carpionato intentionally allowed the property to deteriorate in order to make it easier to justify its destruction.

According to DOT Director Jerome F. Williams, Carpionato has “intentionally failed to maintain the property and allowed continued deterioration in order to facilitate its demolition, rather than to facilitate the restoration, rehabilitation, and preservation of the historic features of the Farmer’s Market Building.”

Today, the state plans to broaden its case and include the City of Providence as a defendant for issuing the building permit, according to Michael D. Mitchell, deputy chief of legal services for the state.

“We are going to amend the complaint and name the City of Providence [today],” Mitchell said yesterday. He would not go into details ofspecifics against the city.

Mayor David N. Cicilline said he supports the actions of his Building Department.

“The liability is on the city if action is not taken; God forbid, a life is lost or something happens, that would be the responsibility of the city.

“We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to save the building.’ The reality is that the health and well-being of the residents of the city is the responsibility of city government. And that determination having been made, the city doesn’t really have an option. The building official is obligated to order its demolition, which he did — and I’m not going to interfere with that,” Cicilline said. 

Considering the unusual architecture of the building, it's not surprising that Carpionato wants to raze it. Yet if the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse bites the dust, you can say goodbye to a little more of old Rhode Island.