South Street Landing is opened with ceremony

PROVIDENCE – With two of the three phases of the South Street Landing project now completed, and largely occupied, state and university officials on Wednesday ceremonially opened the facilities.

The former South Street Power Station has been renovated and expanded into 265,000 square feet of modern academic and office space.

The Rhode Island Nursing Education Center occupies space on the first three floors, while Brown University has moved portions of 11 administrative offices and services into the remainder, about 136,000 square feet of the total building space.

The nursing education center is a collaboration of the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. Classes began in August for 700 undergraduate and graduate nursing students, who are using modern simulation laboratories, classrooms and skills labs, according to a news release.

On the upper floors, about 400 staff members and administrators for Brown will work in the building, joining more than 1,000 already working in the surrounding Jewelry District neighborhood.

The final administrative moves for Brown will be made starting Friday by the Division of Advancement, which will occupy the fifth and sixth floors. The university began moving into the completed building in October.

Gov. Gina M. Raimondo presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the building on Wednesday. In a released statement, she said the project is a metaphor for changing industry in Rhode Island.

“This used to be a power station on the edge of a booming jewelry district. But as manufacturing changed and the jobs went away, the factories went silent,” she said. “Today, we’re changing the narrative. This empty power plant is now full of young people learning in-demand skills that will let them compete in the 21^st Century.”

The project was intended to act as a catalyst for development in the area.

A 744-space parking garage on an adjoining site, which provides parking for the South Street Landing tenants, opened over the summer.

Under active construction is the River House Apartments, a pair of apartment buildings that will house graduate students, medical students and advanced nursing education students.

The $220 million South Street Landing project, including all three buildings, is owned by Ventas, Inc., in partnership with Wexford Science & Technology, LLC which is also developing an innovation center and campus across Dyer Street, in the Interstate 195 Redevelopment District.

The development began under the ownership of CV Properties LLC, of Boston.

The renovation of the power plant building, which was built between 1912 and 1925, was designed by Cambridge-based architects Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, in partnership with Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels of Providence.