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to replace their run-down 1970s health lab on Orms Street since the onset of the COVID pandemic, saying the building is outdated and limited their ability to respond to the coronavirus.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.
The site was one of four identified as potential landing spots for the State Health Lab.
But it was the site the Department of Health first asked for back in 2021, before state lawmakers insisted on going through a bidding process to look at other potential locations.
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.
“Rhode Island has momentum – and this project is crucial to ensuring the momentum continues in the areas of public health and our economy,” McKee said in a news release.
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.
Jewelry District:Brown University buys 10 properties in bid to build new lab
“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.
The project will need approval of the 195 District Commission and Ancora is expected to present its plans to that group Oct. 19.
panderson@providencejournal.com
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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_
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