To the Editor:

The Procaccianti Group is proposing a residential development named Lodges at Phenix Glen located off the Route 37 ramp before the Cranston Veterans Memorial Ice Rink. At a public hearing held earlier this month, a majority of residents spoke in opposition to the project. I think the most important question we can ask ourselves as Cranston residents is, can we rely on the Procaccianti Group to keep its promises? Look at the record of some past projects:

• In 2005, The Procaccianti Group won city approval for a $110 million “Emerald City” on Portland, Maine’s eastern waterfront, which would include 223-room hotel, 97 luxury condominiums and 20,000 square feet of retail space. However, The Procaccianti Group abandoned the project after it failed to sell more than about a dozen condos. The lot sat undeveloped until 2010 when it was sold.

• The Procaccianti Group operated the Sheraton Richmond West in Virginia until April 2007. The Procaccianti Group and its majority partners took out a 10-year, interest-only loan for $29.5 million, but the owners never invested the money back into the hotel, and the hotel went into foreclosure in 2009.

• In 2011, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council told Procaccianti subsidiary PBH Realty that it was in violation of six state freshwater wetland laws because of a manmade pond PBH had made on a Jamestown property. Chris Powell, who was chairman of the Conservation Commission, said, “I chaired the commission for 27 years and these are the most blatant and obvious violations I have ever seen.” Press accounts state that after two years, the Coastal Resources Management Council accepted a “compromise” restoration order.

We need a developer who can keep its promises. We live here. We should not have to “compromise.” As residents of Cranston and members of UNITE HERE Local 217, we respectfully ask that the City Council vote “NO” on the proposed Lodges at Phenix Glen development.

Joseph K. Silvia

and Alfred Palumbo Jr.

Cranston