Nearly $100,000 worth of repairs and improvements coming soon to the Providence Place mall and parking garage offer little solace to those trapped in the garage for hours during repairs on Saturday, March 8.
But this time, the work will be scheduled to avoid high-traffic hours, according to contractor proposals submitted in Providence County Superior Court.
Judge Brian Stern signed off on March 3 on a series of proposed contracts with various consultants brought on to address structural and security concerns at the mall and adjacent parking garage. Safety and security, along with wear-and-tear of the 25-year-old shopping center and parking garage, were top priorities of the West Warwick attorneys named court-appointed receivers for the mall last fall.
Mark Russo and John Dorsey took over mall operations in October amid allegations by creditors that the mall’s former owner, Brookfield Properties, defaulted on a 2011 loan backed by nearly all of the mall’s 1.3-million-square-foot footprint. The court-appointed receivership, the state equivalent of bankruptcy, allows Russo and Dorsey, along with a new mall management company from Texas, to oversee daily operations and long-term improvements to the mall. They can also advertise the mall to potential new buyers.
Since December, when they were confirmed as permanent receivers, Russo and Dorsey have engaged with a flurry of consultants to recommend improvements to the property, including for the pair of eight-floor parking garages, which together offer space for 4,000 cars. They also rolled out a new code of conduct that prevents minors from visiting the mall unaccompanied by adults after 5 p.m.
With Stern’s blessing, work is already underway, including a $56,000 contract, with a $3,000 additional fee, to assess and provide recommendations on structural repairs to the garages. The proposal from Indianapolis-based engineering firm American StructurePoint Inc. expressly states the company will “endeavor to perform this work when the structure is least occupied” — presumably avoiding the hourslong March 8 traffic jam.
Providence Police received more than 50 calls between 4 and 8 p.m. on March 8, when drivers were stuck inside the mall garage, Lindsay Lague, a department spokesperson, said in an email.
Dorsey did not respond to inquiries for comment Tuesday about complaints received from the temporary traffic jam earlier in the month but told other news outlets that various garage upgrades, including a traffic attendant, were planned.
New digital and cashless kiosks to pay for parking have already been installed.
Receivers also said in a statement on Monday that they plan to sign a new contract for parking security services “later this year.” LAZParking is now the parking security contractor.
Details on the terms and the amount of the existing contract with LAZParking were not immediately available.
Other upgrades on the horizon include the $21,600 contract with Coventry-based Shoreside Construction Services to build doors on the mall side of the skybridge, intended to “maintain control to public access,” according to court filings. Another $9,000 job — with an optional $4,800 for additional work — calls for Warwick-based Jensen Hughes to review the fire safety of adding doors to the parking garage stairwells.
The receivers have also engaged Liability Consultants Inc. of Hudson, Massachusetts, to assess mall security, including technology, staffing and protocol, with a $350 hourly cost plus a $3,500 retainer, according to court documents.
The work is being paid for using a $500,000 loan approved as part of the court receivership.
“These extra safety measures and improvements reflect our dedication to creating a secure and welcoming environment for everyone who visits and works at the mall,” Dorsey said in a statement. “We are committed to transparency and will continue to engage with our patrons, tenants, and the community as we implement these enhancements. Our goal is to restore and instill confidence in Providence Place as a safe and vibrant destination.”
The announcement regarding safety and structural repairs coincided with a new mall code of conduct effective Monday. Among the 14-list set of rules is a new requirement that children under 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult when visiting after 5 p.m. The policy applies to the common shopping areas; individual stores, restaurants and retailers may have different rules.
The conduct code also expressly states as a standalone item that “PROVIDENCE PLACE IS FOR SHOPPING” while a separate rule bans congregating groups of four or more people or using the garage or stairs “for anything other than ingress/egress.”
Mall security officers will be enforcing the new rules, partnering with Providence Place on trespassing issues, Dorsey and Russo said in a statement.
Information on the current list of mall tenants was redacted from public court filings. Details about the amount of money owed to individual creditors were also not publicly available. At the time of the receivership petition in October, creditors alleged Brookfield owed $259 million in principal and interest on the $305 million loan.
This story was originally reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
