Kettle Point Wins Key City Vote; Omni Group Plans $5M Federal Hill Office Project

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

The East Providence Waterfront Commission has unanimously approved a $75 million residential community proposed for Kettle Point, East Providence Patch reports. Churchill & Banks, the project’s developer, could break ground this fall on the 407-unit project, which will be located on a 40-acre brownfield site owned by BP Corp.

Plans call for 276 rental units and 131 for-sale residences in formats ranging from townhouses and duplexes to single-family home. Designed by Providence-based architect Don Powers of Union Studio, the development will incorporate abundant open space and direct access to the waterfront. State transportation, environmental and coastal resources agencies must sign off on the project before Churchill & Banks can start construction.

In other development news, Omni Group Inc. has acquired the long-vacant CJ Fox factory complex in Federal Hill near Interstate 95 for $1.6 million. According to Providence Business News, the company will invest an additional $5 million in the project, which will comprise 48,000 square feet of Class A office space and 178 parking spaces on the 2-acre parcel and will be renamed One Cedar Street.

“We are committed to the neighborhood, so we will grow as the neighborhood allows,” Omni principal William DiStefano Jr. told the newspaper. “We didn’t have a master plan; it just worked out, and we loved the neighborhood and area. We are pro-Providence, and we think it only has one way to go: up.”

Upon completion, the four-story, red-brick building is expected to rent for about $21.50 per square foot. Besides the One Cedar Street site, Omni owns nine other commercial buildings in Federal Hill.  

Rendering: Union Studio/Churchill & Banks