Emblem 125

About this Property

#Proposal

The Exeter Property group was selected by the I-195 District Commission to develop Parcel 28, a block bounded by Richmond, Clifford, Chestnut, and Friendship Streets, minus a triangular parcel that Johnson & Wales owns. Their portion of the block contains a property at 101, 103, and 105 Richmond Street that is currently vacant save for the parking lot which gets some use.

Emblem 125 is a mixed-use, new construction project with 248 residential units and approximately 22,700 sf of mostly ground-floor retail space. The project broke ground in October of 2020 and is expected to be complete in Summer of 2022. The architects are Torti Gallas + Partners and ZDS, though it is unclear to us what pieces of the project each one was responsible for.

Design Reception

The building is somewhat exciting in that it introduces density onto a piece of land that has been vacant since the highway was removed a decade ago. Over 200 units is a significant number of people to introduce into the Jewelry District and downtown. It will be interesting to see how rents for Downtown units in historic buildings compete with these newer ones.

New buildings in the Jewelry District are a scar of modernism through the abdomen of a historic district where the highway once severed it from downtown

To us, the design of the building itself is bland — it is only less bland when taken as part of its surroundings. It uses a kind of common, simple modernism that is present in cities located along high-traffic corridors that emphasizes the experience on the inside more than the experience on the outside. The stable history of the District should be a positive contrast to newer buildings like this, which present themselves as a scar of modernism through the abdomen of a district where the highway used to sever it from the downtown. We think the contrast will be interesting, though we are sure that many will scream for “more brick, more brick!”

#Current Events

Additional information and leasing details are available on the Emblem125 website.

#In the News

Apartment surge

by Paul Edward Parker
Providence Journal | June 26, 2019 (abridged)

[…] The commission also voted to name Exeter Property Group, headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, as the preferred developer for Parcel 28, 1.25 acres bounded by Friendship, Clifford, Chestnut and Richmond Streets, although one corner of that rectangle is not included, where Johnson & Wales University owns a vacant building at Richmond and Friendship streets. The Wexford campus is diagonally across the intersection of Richmond and Clifford from Parcel 28.

In addition to the apartments, Exeter proposes 22,700 square feet of retail on the ground floor.

Commission chairman Robert C. Davis said Exeter was chosen because it has a good track record with housing in so-called “meds and eds” districts, where health-care and educational institutions collaborate.

Captured January 9, 2021 from https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/2019/06/27/i-195-board-gives-initial-nod-to-295-apartments-in-2-projects/4820354007/