Wickenden Street 101

Wickenden Street has always been blessed with an artsy quirkiness that has served it well as Fox Point has evolved over the decades. With the relocation of I-195, the pace of the pressures on the street has intensified over the past few years. The good news is the merchants and residents are developing plans to deal with the changes, many of them the result of the traffic reconfiguration that has clogged the lower part of the street. But let’s start at the beginning.

William Wickenden: The Man, the Myth
The Wickenden Street area of Fox Point, now a varied collection of services, stores and restaurants, is a fitting tribute to the man whom the street is named. William Wickenden was a cobbler by trade who became an early Anglo-American Baptist and one of Rhode Island’s foremost leaders, having served the State in various important positions. He was one of the 39 original Providence settlers who signed an agreement to form a government on July 27, 1640 in what became known as the Providence Compact. He had a farm on the original strip of land that today is a part of Wickenden Street. According to some sources, he succeeded Roger Williams as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence, the oldest Baptist church in America. He later organized one of the first Portuguese-American churches in the area.

That was the good, un-rebellious Mr. Wickenden, who left a positive imprimatur on our city. According to A History of the Baptists Volume II, he later went on to Flushing, where he challenged the establishment there as he aggressively preached and baptized converts in the river until their local sheriff had other ideas and the “rebel was charged.”

Over the years, this part of Fox Point evolved into a heavily Portuguese area, populated in large part by men who took jobs working the waterfront of a bustling city. Wickenden Street became the focal point of the area. Certainly one of the main hubs of the street belonged to Manny Almeida, who grew up to be one of the top boxing promoters in the country and owned a wrestling gym and bar located where Z Bar was most recently. The Cape Verdean and Portuguese influences that dominated the neighborhood
are mostly gone from the commercial areas, but still show some residential strength east of Hope Street and south of Wickenden.

The Street Today
Today’s Wickenden Street is a veritable cornucopia. There are eclectic eateries offering Ethiopian, Thai, Japanese, breakfast, crepes, frozen yogurt and cupcakes; shops selling art, picture framing, flowers, pet grooming, jewelry, glasses, fine wine; services like hair and nail salons, tattoos, custom-blended perfumes, pottery classes, attorneys, realtors and tax preparers. Wickenden is home to the city’s only independent hardware store, a smoke shop, a sex shop and a gas station. Whew. You get the idea.

Despite the havoc that road construction has had on the area, the street, its eccentricities notwithstanding, continues to hang tough. There are less than a handful of vacant storefronts and for the first time in a decade, the merchants are finally reorganizing.

Business owners have tried organizing before with little success, but today, led by younger merchants along with some of the old guard, there is a new Wickenden Area Merchants Association (WAMA) and it has big plans. “We look at what Hope Street has done through their association – generating grants and City support, advertising, fairs, festivals and concerts – and believe that we can do this too,” explains Vin Scorziello, the newly elected president of the association, who is a co-owner of Campus Fine Wines.

The exact parameters of WAMA haven’t been fully defined, but the association appears to include all of Wickenden Street and merchants on the cross streets, including Ives and Governor. “About 80% of the merchants are already on board,” explains Ed Hardie, manager of the Residential Properties flagship office in Providence, who became treasurer of the new organization because of his extensive knowledge of the area and, he says laughing, “because I was wearing a tie!”

Merchants Banding Together
The Association has met six times (as of ESM press). Cristine DeMarco, a designer at Adler’s Hardware, has been championing the new Walk Wickenden! campaign that is aimed at highlighting the walkability and the diversity of the street.

The association’s first “situation” has already risen. An application for a sports bar/nightclub establishment with minimal food for the old Z Bar location was introduced before the Licensing Board in early June. WAMA is opposing it; Councilman Seth Yurdin is having his staff “review the application” but is reluctant to comment. He does say he is committed to “maintaining the character and uniqueness of the District. “The hearing was ‘conveniently’ scheduled at 1pm,” Vin points out with a hint of sarcasm.

One of Wickenden’s biggest challenges to overcome is that many of the businesses on the street seem to be specific destinations that shoppers go right to and then leave. “We have to get people to spend a little more time here to see how diverse and interesting Wickenden can be,” adds Vin. Part of the new plan of action is print and social media advertising. “We’re on Facebook and Twitter and we’ll have a website,” he explains. “We have to drive more foot traffic and more shoppers to the area.”

Though relatively close to a lot of Downtown and waterfront events, Wickenden Street merchants feel they don’t see much crossover. Some people remember the Waterfront Festivals at India Park 20 plus years ago that drew tens of thousands of people who parked everywhere and anywhere, but had to walk in, which helped many to actually “discover” Wickenden. “Wickenden Street, except for the Shell Station, really doesn’t benefit from WaterFire or even the [Providence] Flea Market,” on South Water Street, Vin maintains. “It’s much quieter when Brown and RISD are on vacation.”

The current population of stores on the street is an interesting mix of old and new. Adler’s, established in 1919 is the oldest continually operating merchant on the street. Atomic Appliance is another longtime fixture. Joel Flescher, the owner, has operated his store at the corner of Brook and Wickenden for decades: he’s easily the hardest and strongest man on the street. On any given day, you’ll see him out in the street hoisting a refrigerator or any other kitchen or laundry appliance into his truck for delivery and installation throughout the East Side and the state.

Representing some of the newer arrivals is Willy’s Local Foods, located at the corner of Wickenden and Hope Streets, a small grocery store that also serves meals all day and offers healthy, organic, non-processed foods – much of it grown locally – like kale chips. Willy Sherry grew up on the East Side and now lives around the corner on Sheldon Street and saw this as an opportunity to provide a “local, fresh” change for the neighborhood.

Hoping for Positive Change
How the major new projects will impact Wickenden Street is a real wild card. While things remain at the early proposal stage, one of the projects calls for 25,000 square feet of retail space; another proposes 106,500 square feet of retail space. Combined, the two would bring in about four times the amount of retail that currently exists on the whole street. The potential upside, however, is that the projects also lay out plans for hundreds of new apartments and offices that would increase the walking area population quite significantly. Obviously, there is a long way to go before any projects are selected - let alone constructed - in the new space freed up by the Iway relocation.

There is a strong sentiment among merchants of “hoping for the best” mixed with the familiar Rhode Island wisdom of “if and when.” “We need to be focused on today and tomorrow and let the future happen,” says Scorziello.

The entire area west of Benefit Street has been a work zone for a while, creating a constant traffic nightmare. The work is part of the Iway/City Streets contract. This $8.1 million contract will reconnect portions of East Side streets that were in the footprint of I-195. The project is currently scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2015.

The goal of this project is to create better access to the parcels opened
up by the highway relocation, while also making improvements that will benefit the residents and businesses in this area. The new design will create pedestrian and bike lanes. Along Wickenden Street, sidewalks will be updated and additional crossing sig- nals will be added. South Main Street and South Water Street will be rebuilt and established as two-lane roadways with parking on both sides. All three will also have bike lanes.

What the merchants, as well as anyone driving through the congested area, want to know is what happens next.

What Happens Next
The 195 Commission, known as “The LINK” has five parcels that are up for development that will have a direct effect on Wickenden Street. Two of the parcels are located on the north side of Wickenden (NoWic) bordered by South Main and South Water Streets; the other three parcels are located on the south side of Wickenden (SoWic) to the left of South Main Street. Construction has made a complete mess of the area, but is finally showing signs of progress. Transit Street has been extended and will cross South Main and terminate at South Water and a new street, called Dollar Street, will be between South Main and South Water. Plantings are starting to show up, along with some temporary sculptures, which neighbors are saying is a very good sign.

The 195 Commission declines comment on pretty much anything about the developers who have submitted proposals for future development, but that hasn’t stopped the same developers from leaking their plans to the public. That being said, it is probable that others have submitted proposals for these same sites as well.

The two local developers that submitted proposals are CarpionatoGroup and Churchill & Banks, both of whom have a history of many successful projects, as well as some grandiose proposed projects that have not come to fruition.

By far the largest proposal is the one by the Carpionato Group, “The Connection at College Hill,” for a $250,000,000 mixed-use development on the north side of Wickenden Street bordered by South Main and South Water Streets. This massive development will have 170,445 square feet of office and laboratory space; 174,105 square feet of residential property; an 85,000 square-foot hotel and 108,593 square feet of retail and restaurant space. To put this project into perspective, it will be almost 100,000 square feet larger than the vacant Superman building Downtown.

The Carpionato Group is best known for its successful Chapel View mixed-use development in Cranston and the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, but has many other commercial projects throughout Rhode Island. They are describing this as a “signature project with vision.”

Churchill & Banks, Richard Baccari’s company, could be the first out of the ground as they already own a parcel abutting the 195 land. The property is on the east side of South Main Street right across from Al Forno. The original plan proposes to build an apartment complex around the old Fuller Iron Works on Pike Street. Known as the The Esplanade at India Point, the project will increase the existing commercial space to 40,000 square feet and add 52 apartments, mostly one and two-bedrooms plus two penthouse units. There will also be a two-level parking garage with up to 170 spaces and a roof garden.

On the 195 Parcel, Richard Baccari II, an executive vice president of Churchill & Banks, submitted a proposal independent of Churchill & Banks. He is a principal of Royal Oaks Realty that would build residential and commercial structures on “more than one parcel” on the East Side but details are sketchy. He is working with a yet unnamed partner. While it’s all talk and speculation, it has been rumored that they had been negotiating with a supermarket.

Additionally, the fate of the old Shooters location remains unclear. The site was transferred from DOT to DEM which will allow a more public use for the space. The most recent proposal called for an amphitheatre, which was well supported by the neighborhood but was not accepted. The DEM was unable to provide details about why it took the Shooters property back and what they now plan to do with it.

National Grid is still keeping the conversation going on the burying of the electrical lines that pass through India Point Park. This “conversation” predates Shooters and is likely to continue for as long as National Grid can avoid actually burying the lines. A generation of Fox Point children has grown up hearing the story of how the lines will be buried.

There are some glimmers of hope however. A petition signed by 1,700 residents and the Energy Facility Siting Board, which is now under the Public Utilities Commission headed by Meg Curran, are both calling for a more proactive response. National Grid is now having its cost estimate for burying the lines updated which is due by September 30. They are also working on an updated feasibility study that will include test borings under both rivers.

Traffic congestion and construction will be a part of the area for years to come and, while it will present challenges, there will also be opportunities. The Wickenden Area Merchants Association is hoping to be positioned to take advantage of them. Given its long and colorful history of resilience, the safe bet is the street will continue to persevere whatever happens.