Sweeping Vision to Transform Old School into Bustling Center is Unveiled

The story to be written of the transformation of the crumbling and vacant Wickford Elementary School into a $40 million art hotel and conference center with a cooking school, art school, 50 condos, offices and a public walking trail, will be a story about one man’s vision to cement a family legacy marked by Swamp Yankee steadfastness, industriousness and tragedy.

It will also describe how the sweeping project, which could be the spark to ignite a long-sought economic engine for historic Wickford Village, became the life work of Andy Kinnecom, a man who could at 60 call his career a resounding success already, but has become consumed by a project that beckoned to him like the Sirens from their island to Odysseus.

Months ago, Kinnecom, a 13th generation Wickfordite, was driving his mother to Dave’s Marketplace and back. The week before, they took the same route and he saw the for sale sign.

“I looked at my mom and said, ‘you know, if I was 20 years younger I’d think I’d do something.’”

This was a school that he briefly attended, that his older brothers went to. His mother remembers his father building the cement stairs leading from the west side of the building. His father went there. So did his uncle. Both his grandfathers.

The next week, Kinnecom and his mom took the same route to Dave’s and back and that’s when lightning hit. He took another, long, look.

“It just sucked me right in,” Kinnecom told a crowd who gathered at the Beechwood Senior Center Tuesday night to finally get a glimpse of the plans. “It really just called to me.”

Kinnecom’s presentation was both a typical PowerPoint presentation of a future development plan as well as a personal story about how he has become the center figure in what he described as an historic opportunity for North Kingstown.

THE PLAN
The project will be called Wickford EL, and a tip of the hat to the school’s legacy goes beyond the name. Many of the proposed condo units will incorporate classroom-esque elements left behind. The auditorium and classroom spaces will be reimagined to provide space for office and art lofts and public performances hosted by community groups and school children.

The mixed use campus would be anchored with a full-service hotel. The hotel’s art theme taps into the strong community of artists that live in North Kingstown and compliments the annual Wickford Art Festival, one of the largest and most attended festivals of its kind in New England.

The business model calls for at least 50 hotel condo units, which would offer buyers the chance to earn a portion of the revenue from renting out their units while they’re not in town.

The plan also calls for the construction of two new buildings in complimentary designs that would offer 1- and 2-unit residential in-town luxury condos.

There would be a full-service dinner restaurant and the top floor of the existing building would include a sky bar with stunning views of Academy Cove seen only by school officials shoveling snow off the roof in decades past. And Kinnecom said the plan includes a promise that anyone from the public will have access.

The hotel will include “The Club at Wickford El,” a recreation and fitness center open to the public. Among the ideas is to feature paddle tennis, a form of winter tennis with raised and heated surfaces for year-round play.

There has been particular interest in the community resource aspect of the plan, which was hinted at in last week’s Town Council news release.

Kinnecom said that he wants to build an art school and a cooking school to compliment both the hotel operations for unique guest service offerings as well as to offer local children and community groups space for classes and lessons.

The lower level of the school building will include a mix of individual studio spaces, group spaces, the stage and other areas for all sorts of artistic disciplines. The working title is “Schoolhouse Studios” and Kinnecom said he has partnered with Sarah Tallarico, executive director of the Wickford Art Association, to work on the plan.

Wickford Culinary, the cooking school, does not have a firm business plan yet but Kinnecom said Pam Ong and Ashley Barrett have been working together on finding the right recipe.

The goal is to offer programs to teach local children how to cook as well as showcase locally-grown foods. Kinnecom asked meeting attendees to consider guests at the hotel taking a cooking class during their stay, opening the door for collaboration with local food growers and purveyors.

There will be a spa and wellness area, a postal shipping center — “driving to the old Almacs is just crazy,” Kinnecom said — to buy stamps and ship packages.

There might be a trolley service to shuttle people to and from the hotel, Wickford Junction, Wickford village and other spots around town. The hotel could attract visitors and deliver them directly to local businesses, Kinnecom said.

Studios and office spaces in the old classroom spaces would create working spaces for entrepreneurs, people who work from home but want a quiet place to work and other professionals.

“I respectfully and sincerely submit to the citizens of North Kingstown that I have the passion and I have the commitment to do this right,” he said.

THE FINANCING
The final project might look a bit different from the early drawings, Kinnecom said, and much of it hinges on financing.

Kinnecom said he will seek tax increment financing for the project, which entails the town giving up a chunk of annual tax revenue from the developed condos for 25 years.

That money would then be put into a trust to pay lenders and investors who otherwise would not be willing to pay the upfront construction costs, Kinnecom said.

To sweeten the deal, Kinnecom is pledging to pay $1 million toward the town’s ongoing sewer installation costs, substantially reducing the burden on the 54 residents along the route subjected to project assessments.

And he noted that tax increment financing does not call for the town putting up any up-front money.

“This isn’t like 38 Studios where they walk in and say “hey, I need $75 million to build a game,” Kinnecom said.

Though the town wouldn’t get the full tax paid by the sold condo units for 25 years, Kinnecom noted that the town would still get a portion. Plus, there’s the $500,000 sale price of the school itself, a new revenue stream of hotel occupancy and restaurant taxes, new car tax fees from buyers, the construction jobs and long-term jobs once facilities open.

And, he said, the town no longer has to worry about the insurance liability on the old building as well as the maintenance costs.

“It’s just an all around win-win-win,” Kinnecom said.

The walking trail, which would circle the property and link to the library, would be protected through an easement in perpetuity.

REACTION
The plan was well received at Tuesday night’s presentation and Kinnecom was met with applause.

Perhaps the most resounding endorsement came from a woman who would be most impacted, Jane Rawlings, who directly abuts the property next door in her yellow house with a white picket fence.

Rawlings was first to speak during the brief public comment period and she said that “the more I listen to what Andy has to say, the more confidence I have that it has to be done.”

Rawlings said that residents here have long grown accustomed to the sounds of trucks and large vehicles rumbling by. Noise won’t be a concern, she said, admitted that she might have a bit of a barking problem in her yard herself.

“We’ve watched the building sit there empty for years,” she said. “We’ve called the police department at least once a month, also.”

One downside: the hill kids have used to sled over the years might lose out to a new building.

The project, while well-received, will have issues. One resident noted that traffic will still be a concern, though it’s easy to forget what it was like when school buses and parents were streaming on and off the site. Wickford Elementary School shuttered in 2005.

And residents also raised concerns about potential light pollution.

THE PROCESS
Now, the project will head to the town’s Planning Board for preliminary hearings. In the meantime, Kinnecom said he will continue to work with the project team to finalize architecture, engineering and other nuts and bolts tasks before formal plans are submitted.

Kinnecom has recruited arguably an all-star team of some of the biggest names in the historic preservation, architecture and hotel and restaurant industries.

Kinnecom said he wants a plan without compromise, so he hired A4 Architecture and Design, led by famed architect Ross Cann; Bay Realty, MDA Attorneys at Law and Paul O’Reilling, CEO and President of Newport Harbor Corporation, which owns the popular Trio, Papa Razzi, 22 Bowens and other prominent restaurants across the state.

Construction might not actually begin until 2016 depending on the approval and planning process.

THE MAN
Beyond project specifics, this is a project that Kinnecom seems born to complete.

A direct descendent of Richard Smith of Smith’s Castle, Kinnecom has always had a sense of pride gorwing up in Wickford. His great great grandfather was a conductor on the Sea View Railroad, which ran through Wickford, and his son lived to be 99 after a career stringing wires for a company that some might remember: Narragansett Electric.

The first phone service through South County came by this family’s hands. His grandmother worked for Mother Prentice, a famous North Kingstown woman known the country over for her baking and work as the hostess of Wickford House. His uncle, Harold Kinnecom was the first fire alarm and communications chief for the town and installed pole stations between the police and fire departments and maintained them until his retirement in the early 1980s. His father was the President Commander of the Wickford Ambulance Corp.

“I always was proud in the Memorial Day parade riding in the back of an ambulance, waving to everyone,” he said.

A graduate of North Kingstown High School, Kinnecom went on to a career in the hospitality and hotel industry, winning awards along the way.

He came back home about five years ago. His wife died in just 10 months after a late stage cancer diagnosis. He found himself confronting starting his life over again at just about the same time he learned he would become a grandfather.

He reconnected with some friends upon his return and eventually founded Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island. He then helped found Swipe for a Cause, a company that offers payment processing services with an altruistic twist located right here in North Kingstown on top of the local liquor store.

Kinnecom said he has since remarried. His life so far, especially his work in hospice care and his own personal challenges, has created a sense of urgency to take this project and leave his mark on this town. Not just for himself, but for his family and all families who have built and invested in the community for hundreds of years.

“I really felt a calling,” he said. “That there was not only this great opportunity here to be beneficial for me and all of us here in our lifetimes, but something more. This is an historic opportunity and unique opportunity to do soemehing for future generations.”

Just like Ludwig Updike who came and platted Wickford Village 300 years ago, “I’m the right person to do this,” Kinnecom said.

This story is currently being edited for typos, to add links and other details.