Thinking back on 20 years of Providence Place

The 20th anniversary of the Providence Place mall coincided with the welcome addition of a new anchor store, Boscov’s. All told, the mall has done wonders for the capital city, even in an age when such online retailers as Amazon have put brick-andmortar stores in peril.

The $460-million mall opened its doors in August 1999 after a great deal of contentious debate. It got property and sales tax breaks as part of the plan.

But few could question at this point that it has been enormously important to a city that seemed to be on the ropes when it was built.

“There was no retail,” former Mayor Joseph Paolino, now a property developer, recounted in a Sept. 28 news story (“What’s in store for Providence Place’s next 20 years?”). “It was a ghost town.”

Such downtown stores as Shepard’s, Peerless and the Outlet Company were closing down. As they went, smaller shops around them that depended on the foot traffic of shoppers teetered and closed.

The mall, though, has meshed with the lively city activities around it. Think of what has gone on. A project to uncover the river and adorn it with lovely bridges has made the downtown infinitely more attractive. Every appearance of the WaterFire art installation draws thousands of people downtown.

The Rhode Island Convention Center, opened in 1993 and connected to the mall, has generated tremendous economic activity.

The restored former Providence Civic Center, now called The Dunkin’ Donuts Center — often shortened to The Dunk — has also paid for itself by boosting the economy. The Providence Performing Arts Center and Trinity Rep further energized the downtown.

The former Masonic Temple — which had been empty since 1929, when an economic crash halted construction — was reborn as the beautiful Renaissance Providence Hotel.

Parts of Union Station were renovated and reused, now housing the Rhode Island Foundation, The Public’s Radio and bars and restaurants. Developer Buff Chace restored beautiful buildings downtown that, fortunately, were left standing years earlier because Rhode Island lacked the political clout to gain federal funds to tear them down.

The story continues. The crumbling, brutalist Fogarty Building has been replaced by the new Residence Inn Providence Hotel.

And a New York developer, Jason Fane, has proposed a $300-million luxury apartments tower on former Route 195 land that would attract hundreds more well-to-do people to live downtown, patronize its businesses and enjoy its amenities.

A big part of the mall’s appeal, the brainchild of its designer Friedrich St. Florian, is the stunning atrium with large glass windows at the mall’s center. Called the “winter garden,” it offers spectacular views of the downtown.

To be sure, these are very tough times for malls. Providence Place’s original anchor stores — Nordstrom, Filene’s and Lord & Taylor — are gone. But the mall still offers vibrant shopping, as well as other attractions, with its food court, gaming establishments and movie theaters. Given its important place in the midst of downtown activities, it should continue to have a role even as times change.

As City Council member John Igliozzi noted: “The Providence Place mall was one of the major catalysts to reestablish the city as a destination place ... It’s becoming an iconic facility that we all should be proud of.”

— Providence Journal, Oct. 8