110 Westminster condo continues to languish

The One Ten Westminster Street luxury condo tower seems like a useful barometer for Providence's development boom.

When it was announced in early 2005, it bespoke the confidence of that time.

When it was delayed, it signaled a possible condo glut and a softening housing market.

And now, as Jessica Kerry reports in this week's Phoenix, with a big hole remaining on a spot between Westminster and Weybosset streets, some still wonder just who is going to pay $500,000 and up to live in downtown Providence.

Construction was set to begin this past spring, but was pushed back because of “economics,” according to Thomas E. Deller, Providence’s director of planning & development, who cites iron and steel prices and design issues. The developers and the planning office have yet to settle on a date to break ground, and Deller is reluctant to offer a fresh estimate. “Every time I’ve set a date in the past I was wrong,” he says, “so I’d prefer not to try.”
 
BlueChip and Granoff Associates may have initially overestimated the extent to which advance sales would finance the privately financed project. Last fall, they announced that a hotel would occupy the bottom half of the building, bolstering their investment and reducing the financial risk of the $90 million venture. Rumors suggested that W Hotels, an upscale international chain, has signed a deal, although the developers have yet to make an announcement.

. . . . 
 
Some signs indicate that this new development might be getting ahead of itself. Housing in Rhode Island is already too expensive for many to afford; HousingWorksRI, an affordable-housing advocacy group, reports that that the income required to purchase a home at the statewide median price is $90,491. The median household income for the state is just $47,037, according to 2004 Census data.
 
To make matters worse, the national housing market has entered crisis mode, with property values down, foreclosures up, and interest rates on the rise. Because lenders are less willing to finance sizeable loans, the sub-prime mortgage fiasco has even hurt the high-end housing market, where sales are down all over the country.
 
Still, says Deller, Providence is ready for upscale real estate like One Ten Westminster. “We need a spectrum of housing opportunities,” he says. “We want to have a cross-section of people to keep the city diverse and exciting.” Despite the market slump, he remains optimistic about downtown development and the future of the Westminster project: “The units are moving slowly, but they’re moving.”