Providence City Council Meeting | January 27th, 2026 | Committee on Finace

Good evening, everyone. Providence Councilwoman Joanne Ryan. This is a public hearing. The committee on finance, Tuesday, January 27. It is 05:44 p.

M. Madam Clerk? No roll call. We're not gonna do a roll call, but I am gonna recognize my colleagues on vice chair of the finance, Jim Taylor. We have councilwoman Anderbois, councilwoman Graves, councilman Sanchez.

We are staffed by our favorite city solicitor Kenny Cheeverini, and of course our wonderful clerks. And our the administration has sent Chief Mancini to help guide us through these discussions. I hope this goes very quickly. We are actually having a meeting on the rise after we all hear these, items. So, madam clerk, could you please, read item one?

And can I have the sheets, please? Could I have, sergeant, may I

have the sheets? Thank you. Item one, an ordinance establishing a tax stabilization agreement for 20 America Street. Thank you.

Chief Nancy, could you step up, please? Introduce the matter, and then we'll have the applicants join us. I think we're gonna do one at a time.

Thank you. Lawrence Mancini, chief financial officer of the city of Providence. Madam chair, do you wish to have you sworn in?

Oh, I see what you're saying. You wanted to swear everybody in. Why don't we, why don't we ask everybody that is going to testify to stand up, come behind the rail, we're going to swear everyone in, and then we're going to take these matters one at a time. So anybody who's testifying, please come behind the rail. What a cheerful group.

We're ready.

Please raise your right hands. Do you swear under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

And please state your names for the record.

Lawrence Mancini, chief financial officer of the city of Providence.

Peter Patrakoff. Eric Sonina, item number two. Miles Daleyder with 20 America Street. Chris Pilate, item number one. Anti Mercedian, item number two.

Joel Rocha, item number two.

Okay. Great. We're gonna take this this one at a time. So 20 America Street is first. Take it away.

So, madam chair, members of the committee, good evening once again. Madam chair, as you recall earlier, actually, at the in the meetings that were held in December, the finance committee entertained these items for the purposes of having it referred to the public hearing. Testimony was given during that time and summarizing the the applicant's project as well as the benefits associated with the project both to the applicant and to the city. In the case of 20 America Street, this is a plat 28 Lot 1046. It's a category two project, ten year term with a two year base.

The estimated cost of the project is $3,537,200 based on hard cost of $2,418,003.29 and soft cost of $193,004.66. It is the new construction of a 23 unit residential building and the details were that currently it's a vacant lot used for parking. And if I may, madam chair and members of the committee, while I'm giving the testimony at the present time, I'd like to give you the fiscal note that was prepared by the tax assessor's office. And I will do that each of the items as they're presented to you. So the fiscal note in this item, it's a ten year stabilization agreement.

And it'll be the first two years will be held at the base taxes that are currently at sorry, currently at $3,585 in base tax based on a value of 122,800. The project will grow to a tax in 2035 of $3,882,000 of value or a tax of 105,000. For the record and for the public's benefit, a tax stabilization is in agreement whereby the taxes are stabilized for a period of the first two years and then they gradually increase over the remainder of the life of the stabilization. In this case, there will be a savings to the applicant of $361,820 over the ten year period of the stabilization. But when fully taxed, the taxes will go from, again, currently $3,586 to a phase in of $110,662.

In addition to the savings to the applicant, the tax stabilization will fall under section 3.11 of the ordinance, which allows for parks and recreation fee payable to the city based upon the 7% of the savings to the applicant. Based on that calculation, madam chair, members of the committee, that would generate a $25,327 parks and recreation fee payable to the city incrementally over the ten year period of the stabilization. In addition, section 3.14 of the ordinance calls for a monitoring fee payable to the city. That monitoring fee is based on point zero zero one of the total project cost, in this case, of 3,537,000. It will result in an annual monitoring fee of $3,537.

The object of the mounting fee, madam chair, members of the committee, is to deter and defer costs associated to the city with with implementation and monitoring it through the tax assessor's office. I should note for the record that in every case, in all stabilizations, while the values have been projected currently, they are subject to those revals that occur in the next three and six year period, and those values will be used to then determine the tax. But in the meantime, we're using values that were available to us at this time. Madam chair, that completes the administration and finances testimony on this project. I am now asking that the applicant and legal counsel provide you with additional details, and I believe they have storyboards or other information that you'd like to hear.

Please come forward.

Good evening. Zachary Bordoni appearing on behalf of Twenty America LLC.

Dylan Conley, attorney on behalf of applicant.

Good evening.

Good evening. So with regards to the development at twenty America, this is going to be a purely residential development. It'll be approximately 23 units, 10 studio units, and thirteen one bedroom units. This will be a multi story dwelling. It'll be approximately 2,800 square feet on each lot.

This is currently a 5,200 square foot lot and as was previously stated, it is currently a paved parking lot. So, there will be a new development going up on this lot. And like I said, will be 100 residential. Yeah. As you can see in the the handouts that was given to you to kind of show general rendering of what the building is going to look like.

As you can see, it will be, you know, a four story building, housing the 23 units. And with this project, it will through the development and construction of the building, it will result in at least 14 jobs being created for dedicated to this the construction of this. And as previously stated, this would be a category two project.

Madam chair, the I think two points here that I I think the council deserves credit for is first, this project would have been impossible if not for the r four up zone, which recently occurred. That, facilitates the level of density here. And as this is a tier two location, this is not a premium location, this isn't premium commercial, corridor. This is an interior parcel. It's not a large parcel, but you're still seeing 23 units here because of this TSA program.

So the combination of the council's TSA program and the council's up zone is creating 23 homes where today there's parking lot. The reason why it's been a parking lot for such a long time is because neither of those things have been available to this parcel for a very long time. So this is effectively the applicant following through on the council's policies. So we're for the opportunity to be here this evening. And, we think that, this is the exact sort of thing that Providence is hoping to see.

Right. Anything further you'd like to add into testimony? No? Okay. Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, madam clerk. Next item is what? Item two. Item two. You were doing two.

An ordinance established. Please read. Item two and two.

Item two. An ordinance establishing a tax stabilization agreement for 386 Atwells Avenue.

Thank you. Okay. Chief Mancini.

Thank you again, madam chair, members of the committee. Similarly, is a tax stabilization for 386 Apples Avenue, Assesses Plat 28, Lot 1091. The base assessment currently is at $642,100. This too is a category two TSA based on the audience, a ten year term with a two year base. The estimated total cost of this project will be $5,000,000.

The hard cost of 4,800,000 with soft cost of 200,000. This is new construction of a four story mixed use residential building. It will include the following, one commercial unit on the 1st Floor and 21 residential units above, 10% of the commercial space with 27 internal parking spaces, and preliminary construction has already begun. Filing fees have been paid and they have met all the other criteria. With respect to the tax and fiscal note prepared by the assessor's office, madam chair, members of the committee, the current base tax based on today's current value of 642,100, yields a current tax today of $18,749.

That will be held in place for the first two years and then gradually increasing over the next eight years. The taxes will rise from a $165,006.24 with proposed values of 5,800,000 to a tax when fully phased in of a 175,000 per year on a value of 6,100,000. Based on the ordinance section 3.11, the parks and recreation fee will be based on 7% of the savings to the applicant. That total savings to the applicant is $526,761 over the entire the entire ten year period. That would yield a parks and recreation fee to the city of $36,873 payable installments over the ten year life of the agreement.

Also under section 3.14 for monitoring fee, again, based upon 0.001 of the total project cost of $5,000,000 would result in an annual monitoring fee of $5,000 again paid to defer and deter costs associated with instituting the TSA and having it monitored. Madam chair, at this time, if you would, you can call the applicant and and their counsel.

Please. Sergeant, could you also provide the sheets? Can you just pull all the sheets for me? Please identify yourself.

Good evening. Joel Rocha, attorney for the applicant.

Good evening, madam chair, members of the board. Eric Zwena, managing principal of ZDS, Arctition Interiors.

Okay. Mister Mancini stole most of my thunder, but Okay. We're here on TSA, as he stated, for a mixed use project. Eric, our architect, will go through with you what the building is going to look like. And, again, it's new construction.

There's a mix of nineteen one bedrooms, three two bedroom units, and, the commercial unit on the 1st Floor.

Thank you, Joel. Just a quick run through of the drawings and rendering, and then I can answer any questions that you might have. This is at, 386 Atwells Avenue. It's adjacent, to the north of a previous project that we built on 8 Hewitt Street. So the rendering is depicting both 8 Hewitt Street and the new development that's on Atwells Avenue.

I'll just point to the line.

Okay.

Four story building, gross square footage of just shy of 20,000 square feet, about 19,600 square feet. It's a four story building. 1st Floor has one commercial space of 1,886 square feet with one apartment that runs on the East side on Hewitt Street. And then there are seven units per floor on the 2nd And 3rd And 4th Floors. They're all one bedroom units.