Rhode Island State Laboratories

also known as THe PVD Labs

A brand-new Level 3 health laboratory will upgrade the state's health crisis reponse and research capabilities

About this Property

Proposal

The State Health Lab at 150 Richmond Street on the corner of Clifford is a 208,000 sf modern office building. It is being developed by Ancora, a real-estate developer with many labs in its portfolio in close proximity to universities. Ancora has named the building The PVD Labs.

The state will own 80,000 sf of space through a condominium agreement and Ancora will lease the remaining space to other laboratory tenants. One early commitment has come from Brown University, who already has a significant investment in lab space in this growing “Innovation District.” It is too early to tell if they will vacate after they complete their own new building at Richmond and Ship Streets.

The land that opened up after interstate 195 was removed through the Jewelry District has been redeveloped into a mix of housing and multi-tenant buildings committed to scientific or entrepreneurial innovation.

Design Reception

The building does not look innovative on its own but instead blends into its surroundings, as much as a new seven-story building can. It will be clad in a red material with lots of glass and a neutral gray or sandstone seventh floor screen hiding the HVAC and air-purifying equipment. While not as visually interesting as the neighboring Wexford Innovation Center, the building is fine. We suppose it does not want to attract too much attention as it may one day be investigating the next COVID-19 outbreak and holding samples of a new strain for experimentation.

Other nearby residential buildings have come across as schlocky in their design aesthetic, mixing together different surface materials in an attempt to create visual interest. It is a lazy way to clad a building instead of actually design it, in our opinion. This one does not try to make a big statement or use set-backs and changes in elevation to break it up into smaller pieces. It sits on the odd-shaped lot in sort of bent elbow shape much like the Wexford, and uses two-story windows in a similar fashion. Its not going to attract love or hate, which is likely the point.

In the News

New State Health Lab would go in $165 million Jewelry District building

by Patrick Anderson
Providence Journal | October 4, 2022 (abridged)

Rhode Island would build an $82-million State Health Laboratory inside a new seven-story commercial building in Providence’s Jewelry District under plans released by Gov. Dan McKee’s administration Tuesday.

Rhode Island public health officials have been clamoring to replace their run-down 1970s health lab on Orms Street since the onset of the COVID pandemic, saying the building is outdated and limited their ability to respond to the coronavirus.

The proposed new Health Lab would occupy all of the second and third floors in a $165-million building built by a private developer that would include private laboratory space. Brown University has agreed to be a tenant in the complex.

The proposed 212,000-square-foot building would be located in a vacant lot at Richmond and Clifford streets in the state-owned I-195 Redevelopment District. […]

Along with choosing the location, the McKee administration has also chosen a private developer to build and manage the project.

That developer-owner is Ancora L&G, a partnership between Legal & General Capital, a United Kingdom-based investment group, and Ancora, a North Carolina-based real estate firm. […]

Under the plans released Tuesday, Rhode Island would own the 80,000-square-foot State Health Lab in a condominium arrangement while Ancora L&G owns the rest of the building.

The state will use an $81.7-million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pay for construction of the Health Lab part of the building.

The state would pay a facilities management fee, but the amount of the fee has not been determined, said Laura Hart, spokeswoman for the Department of Administration.

Brown’s increasing footprint in district

Brown has been buying up properties in the Jewelry District and expanding its medical and life-science facilities in the neighborhood. The university has signed a letter of intent to lease 20,000 square feet for 10 years in the new Health Lab building.

Brown has been deployed as an anchor tenant in several state-subsidized Jewelry District buildings in recent years, including the South Street Landing nursing education center and the Wexford Science and Technology Building.

“Often, the certainty that comes with tenancy from a Rhode Island anchor institution is an essential factor as private developers consider new investments in Providence,” Brown President Christina Paxson said in a news release announcing the university’s planned role in the complex.

The new Health Lab building would be located near the 196,000-square-foot, seven-story Wexford Building, which state planners at one point had expected would include private laboratory space.

In May, Britain’s Legal & General invested $500 million in the new partnership with Ancora to build life-science properties and said it could raise that investment to $4 billion. Ancora CEO Josh Parker is running the new company.

The State Health Lab on Orms Street is the only Level 3 biosafety facility in Rhode Island equipped to handle dangerous materials, microbes and pathogens.

Former state Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, who first championed a new laboratory, said the old building has a leaky roof and outdated heating, cooling and electrical systems.

The new lab would also be classified as Level 3 and have a larger “biocontainment facility” allowing researchers to do more testing and genomic sequencing to search for deadly pathogens. […]

Captured 09 June 2024 from https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/politics/2022/10/04/new-ri-state-health-lab-to-be-in-jewelry-district-building/8167917001/