The site of a giant steam-operated textile mill in the late 1800s, later acquired by Leviton Manufacturing and then bought by local developer Michael Integlia, will transform yet again according to plans to be considered by the Planning Board.

When he acquired the 86-acre Levition property that extended west from Jefferson Boulevard and south of Kilvert Street to Metro Center Boulevard in 2013, Integlia divided it into five parcels. One of those is where the brick mill building and tower stood until being demolished in 2015 and is across from the rental car and station parking garage connected to the airport terminal to the interlink. It’s part of City Centre, the long dreamed of heart to a Warwick downtown with offices, hotels, retail and some residential space energized by the confluence of air, highway and rail traffic.

Integlia continues to see the location as critical to redevelopment of the site, but now the emphasis has changed with the market. His initial concept centered on a mixed use of predominately residential with a smattering of retail and a possible hotel in a renovated mill complex. That changed. With the mill gone, the plan was for a glass and shiny silver office building facing Jefferson Boulevard within easy walking distance to the MBTA rail station its  the interlink connection to the airport. The cost was $50 million. The development would have included some retail.

That’s changed for a third time.

With the soaring demand for housing, Integlia and his partner Sal Leccese are looking to build a four story 248-unit apartment complex with retail and restaurant space on the first floor.There would be an attached 411-car garage. This development as compared to One Metro Center, where Integlia has approval to build 260-units in three four-story apartment buildings, is designed to serve a higher income clientele. He said Skye City Centre, as it has been named, would have a number of amenities commanding higher rental rates than Metro One a short distance away. He described One Metro Center as “workforce housing.” 

In the center of Skye is an acre courtyard with a walking loop, swimming pool and pickle ball court and other features. The proposal is for 22 one bedroom units of 653 SF; 39 one-bedroom units of 905 SF; 70 one-bedroom units of 752 SF, 66 two-bedroom units of 1,066 SF; 36 two-bedroom units of 1,143 SF and 15 two-bedroom units of 1,085 SF.

Integlia estimated the development to cost between $75 million and $90 million. He aims to have plans to the Planning Department shortly and is hopeful of Planning Board consideration in February. If that all comes together, Intelia said construction could start as soon as this summer.

Earlier this year in a Beacon story, Bruce Keiser estimated there could be as many as 600 new residential units in or bordering City Centre.

“It would be a shot in the arm for the economic base for the area,” he said.

In addition to One Metro Center 260 apartments, Keiser was considering the 75-condo units under construction on Graystone and Kilvert Streets; conversion by Landing Partners, LLC of New York City of what started out as a Sheraton Hotel on Post Road into 181 workforce apartments and development of the former 6.5-acre Lars parking lot on Post Road. The Rhode Island Airport Corporation bought the Lars lot for $3 million in 2016 and agreed earlier this month to sell it to Skydra Development for $3.3 million. Future use of the site was described as “mixed use” to RIAC.