Community Health Center in South Providence Enters Final Phase of Construction

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

The $45 million development of the Federated Lithographers mill building in the South Providence neighborhood has entered its second and final phase of construction.

According to GoLocalProv, the new space will enable Lifespan to relocate several of its programs, including Community Health Services, the Rhode Island Hospital School of Diagnostic Imaging, the Lifespan Youth Development Program, and Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s renowned Children’s Neurodevelopment Center. The company intends to lease 27,000 square feet at the Federated Lithographers site.

Plans also call for the construction of a 5,000-square-foot Walgreens pharmacy store, as well as the expansion of the Providence Community Health Center’s dental clinic.

In March 2011, the Providence Community Health Centers Inc. broke ground on the complex, which is considered to be the largest private development project in South Providence. The Prairie Avenue Revitalization Initiative is supporting the project, which has received public and private funding.

According to Merrill Thomas, Providence Community Health Center CEO, the new facility will help spur the neighborhood’s economic development.

“Lifespan has long been a supporter of development in this neighborhood, and we are pleased to have the second phase of this important project get underway. We hope that by moving key services along with the employees who staff them into this community, Lifespan is helping to generate more economic activity and better health for residents,” said Timothy J. Babineau, M.D., Lifespan’s president and CEO.

“The final phase development of the Federated Lithographers site and the participation of Lifespan, Walgreens and Providence Community Health Centers are the transformative elements in moving South Providence from decades of isolation to a future of economic integration that will serve as a model for rebuilding the fabric of the city’s neighborhoods,” said Darrell Lee, president of BCOG Planning and Development and founder of the Prairie Avenue Revitalization Initiative.

“The culmination of these organizational investments in South Providence is historic and greatly anticipated by local businesses and residents,” he added.

Photo credits: www.prairieavenue.org