Anthony Albanese Sr. thinks of the latest version for the future for Hunter’s Garage on the Warwick side of Pawtuxet Bridge as the “last hurrah.” 

It’s no wonder in the last five and a half years two plans have been floated for the property with the most ambitious and the one garnering the loudest village objection being a structure combining six residential units and first-floor restaurant with cantilevered balconies overlooking the river.

Albanese’s son, Anthony Jr., who is spearheading the latest proposal for the property that will get its first public airing May 14 before the Warwick Planning Board, believes the village will embrace “Hunter’s Landing.”

“We hope to have a beautiful building that everyone enjoys,” he said in an interview last week. He said the proposed building “keeps in style with the neighborhood.”

Scaled back proposal

 So far, the project has received a favorable nod from City Planner Thomas Kravitz who notes the proposed mixed use building, a two-and-a-half story structure connected by a two-story common area is a significant reduction over prior proposals. Ginny Leslie, a board member of the Pawtuxet Village Association whose historic home is two lots away from Hunter’s got her first glimpse of the plan Sunday. While she found the proposal smaller than prior proposals, she still thinks it is too big for the lot.

As Albanese puts it, the project is a “self-contained envelope” meeting zoning requirements for residential and commercial parking.

According to the narrative accompanying the request of Bridge Group, LLC (Albanese’s limited liability company), for approvals of a Major Land Development Project, the western and eastern structures would have two one-bedroom, single level flats on the ground floor and two two-story townhomes on the second and third floors.

Restaurant not in the cards

 Furthermore, the plans drafted by Joe Casali Engineering, Inc. (JCE) of Warwick, call for 1,510 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor of the eastern side of the building. Albanese Jr. says this could be a single commercial establishment or divided into two. He is “not looking favorably” on a restaurant.

“The eastern structure ground floor units will have patio spaces and the upper townhouse units will have patio spaces and the upper townhouse units will have decks above the common space entry doors,” reads the narrative. Common space would be comprised of the building entry, lobby and stairwell.

The existing Hunter’s Garage would be demolished according to the proposal.

According to the city zoning,  parking ordinances for multi-family residential units and commercial space, the development would require a minimum of 20 parking spaces.  The proposal calls for 22 spaces. Vehicles would enter the property from the north and would be restricted to existing the premise to the south.

Built in 1930, Hunter’s Garage sat vacant for years before being acquired by the Albaneses who are the largest village property owners. They cleaned up the garage property that had become a site for derelict vehicles and trash, painted the building, adding windows which gave a façade more fitting to the historical character of the village.

Village scuttlebutt centered on what would become of the property. Two plans were advanced, the first being the combination of a restaurant and housing and the second a year ago for an all-residential 12-unit building. Both plans met strong headwinds from the Historic District Commission and village residents for being overpowering and were not pursued.

After briefly scanning the plans, Leslie said “it’s an improvement, but I’m not sure I can go for it.” What troubles her are the one-foot side yard setbacks from the abutting residential property for parking requiring an exception to the regulations from the city.

Repeating what one member of the Historic District Commission said in reviewing a development, Leslie said developers need to start their plans around what they have for property, not with what they want.