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An historic look at the name of ALCO by the Rhode Island Photographic Survey

Current news

Smiles, optimism surround project in mill district

“We want to make Providence the coolest place in the world,” says developer Bill Struever.

by Cathleen Crowley
March 9, 2006 | Providence Journal

A concrete loading dock set the stage for city and state officials to celebrate the proposed transformation of several Valley Street mill buildings.

Mayor David N. Cicilline called mills of the American Locomotive Works a monument to the thousands of immigrants who worked in them. "They were the heart and soul of the industrial era and they were the engine that moved these cities forward," he said.

But a new locomotive engine moved in yesterday. Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse officially announced their plan to infuse $333 million into the 22.5-acre site. Struever wants to refurbish 26 historic buildings and construct a handful of new buildings to create a neighborhood of retail, office space, apartments and condominiums. The plan includes two parking garages wrapped up and hidden behind condominiums.

The project consists of the former American Locomotive Works, U.S. Rubber and a portion of the Nicholson File sites, which are all owned by the Licht family. The development is nicknamed ALCO, and its insignia was borrowed and updated from American Locomotive Works' letterhead. Struever hopes to complete the first phase of the project, which includes a hotel and office buildings, by the end of the year, and finish the entire project by 2008.

"I'm excited to see these old, old historic buildings [that] had a legacy of one type being now converted and being the future of not only the city, but the state," Governor Carcieri said. Carcieri, who has threatened to cut back the state's historic tax-credit program, said ALCO was the perfect, neighborhood-transforming use of the credits. Struever will be using $30 million in state historic tax credits.

Rep. Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, said the credits will benefit the city and state through increased property taxes, jobs, income taxes and sales taxes. "This makes sense," Costantino said.

" We want to make Providence the coolest place in the world," said Bill Struever. "That's our small goal, and historic buildings are terrific for it. They have such an incredible magic and spirit."

But beneath yesterday's atmosphere of good cheer hovered a layer of uncertainty. The ALCO project will displace more than 30 small businesses, and community leaders fear that it will drive real-estate values above the means of the low-income and working families in the nearby neighborhoods. Also, the developer is relying on the city to approve a $40-million bond to pay for infrastructure improvements.

Council President John J. Lombardi said the Tax Increment Financing that Struever is seeking will face considerable debate. A TIF bond, which must be approved by voters, would pay for road improvements, bridge work over the Woonasquatucket River and a river walk alongside ALCO. The bond would be repaid by the tax revenue generated by the ALCO and other developments that – hopefully – follow it.

One person who was not in the crowd was Norman A. Ospina, president of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association. Ospina said he wasn't invited. Ospina is skeptical that ALCO will improve the lives of the people who reside nearby. He thinks it will force them out.

"We don't want to displace all the low-income people," Ospina said. "We need people to clean the hotel bathrooms and shovel the sidewalks, but we don't want to build housing for them to live in a dignified manner. This [ALCO] is not going to be for our people. This is going to be out of their reach."

Indeed, the 600 residential units at ALCO will range from $1,200 to $1,800 a month for rental units and $300,000 to $450,000 for condominiums.

Bill Struever acknowledged that the project will drive up property values, but his company plans to partner with affordable-housing agencies and other community projects. The company has dedicated 2 percent of its construction costs to community projects and an additional 10 percent of the profits from the project to a trust fund for community initiatives, including affordable housing.

Struever officials have met with representatives of Olyneyville Housing Corp., Smith Hill Community Development Corp., Rhode Island Housing, the city and LISC, a national nonprofit that focuses on community development.

"People have to move away from the idea that this site has to have affordable housing," said Barbara Fields, director of the Rhode Island LISC office. "But if we can get money from [ALCO] to do the housing in the Smith Hill, Valley and Olneyville neighborhoods, then there are other opportunities."

Councilwoman Josephine DiRuzzo, who did not attend yesterday's event because she is recovering from knee surgery, said she will fight for the small businesses at the site and the neighbors around it, but she is enthusiastic about the Struever project. "This area has been neglected and forgotten and has been lying dormant for years with the exception of a little activity," she said. "I think it's going to bring life to the whole area."

Our Two cents

As with most development, things are not so black and white. Investment in a neglected area, good; gentrification and rising property values in an already over-valued market, bad. Reuse of a mill complex and a new life for historic structures, great; displacing of local area businesses that have been keeping an otherwise blighted area alive, terrible. What are we to do, really? Change is inevitable, and needed, but why always at such a high price? Can we get some affordable housing out of the deal? If Providence had a plan in place for Inclusionary Zoning, the city could better control where money goes for affordable housing and not rely soley on the good intentions of the developer. With all this interest from developers, its about time the city had a plan in place.

history

A quick Google search turned up this info, though nothing specific about this complex of buildings:

American Locomotive Company (ALCO) was formed in 1901 when seven smaller locomotive builders merged with the Schenectady Locomotive Works (Schenectady, NY) in order to compete against the largest locomotive builder of the days. Among the seven locomotive builders was the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, Providence.

Over all of its time (prior to merger and after), ALCO produced about 75,000 locomotives with more than 63% of them built in Schnectady, NY. In fact, all of the locomotive manufacturing (except in Canada) was consolidated in Schectady by 1931 and continued until 1968.

Of the smaller works, Rhode Island was the first to be closed in 1907 having been founded in 1866 and after producing 3400 locomotives. The Rhode Island division, however, did have the distinction of producing ALCO's first line of automobiles in 1906, after buying a license from Automobiles M. Berliet of Lyons, France, after an investment of $6,000,000. In 1909, an ALCO automobile, driven by Henry Fortune Grant, won The Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, N.Y., with an average speed of 62.81 MPH and in 1910 ALCO again won The Vanderbilt Cup. Grant and his "Bete Noire" won the race by 25 seconds with an average speed of 65.18 MPH. In 1913, though, ALCO closed its automobile manufacturing facility because it proved unprofitable. An interesting side note, however, in 1911 Walter P. Chrysler, the works manager for The Allegheny NY Plant, moved to Detroit to work for Buick Motor Company. The Chrysler Corporation was subsequently founded on June 6, 1924.

During World War II, ALCO produced army tanks (7,362 of them), tank destroyers, shells, bombs, gun carriages, gun mounts and 4,488 locomotives. Employment increased three fold to over 15,000 people by 1945.

Most of the general files, technical manuals and ALCO designs are located in George Arent Research Library at Syracuse Univerity (Phone: 315-443-2697). The Buider's Photos and many of the Erecting Cards (photographs of the drawings) and Painting Diagrams are in the possession of a sub-chapter of the Mohawk & Hudson Chapter of the NRHS. This group of volunteers is known as "ALCO Historic Photos" and is preserving over 32,000 ALCO negatives.

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