Except for light morning and noontime crowds, business is slow at Olga's Cup and Saucer on Point Street in the Jewelry District. A few blocks away, at Nobody's Bar and Deli on Bassett Street, the delicatessen is empty on a Monday afternoon.
The Alpert Medical School may soon change all that. The University is planning to use a portion of a $100 million gift from the Warren Alpert Foundation to fund a new building for the Med School, likely in the Jewelry District.
University officials have not yet announced publicly where they will expand the Med School. But the University announced last October that it would acquire seven buildings in the Jewelry District - about two miles from campus - and has little free space on College Hill, suggesting that the neighborhood is a strong contender for the Med School's expansion. Residents told The Herald they would welcome the Med School, so long as it doesn't ruin the Jewelry District's identity.
Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that University officials will have a better sense of its expansion plans in a few months.
"We have been talking about a new medical education center and, yes, one possibility is to locate such a facility in or near the Jewelry District," he wrote.
Despite its name, the neighborhood is not glitzy. Buildings are generally well-kept, but "For Lease" signs adorn windows on nearly every block. The only University-owned building in the area the Med School currently uses for lab work - a six-story facility at 70 Ship St. that houses the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine - stands out as particularly modern and inhabited.
At Big Fish seafood restaurant on Richmond Street, typical weekday lunch crowds are "modest," said manager Brian Walach. Having the Med School nearby would be good for his business and the neighborhood, he said.
"This area is nice, but it could use a little sprucing up," he said. "I could only see good things coming from a move like that."
Michael Hogue, who lives in the Jewelry District and is president of the Jewelry District Association board, said the Med School would boost the area's economy.
"The Jewelry District would expand dramatically, both economically and vitality-wise," he said.
Even if the Med School comes to the Jewelry District, it's not clear whether professors and students would live in the neighborhood, as well. Currently the area has about 150 to 200 residents, Hogue said. Realtors who work in the Jewelry District say there is minimal additional housing available.
Sharon Steele, who sells commercial and residential real estate in the Jewelry District, said locating the Med School in the area would fuel the need for additional residential construction.
"There would be a resurgence of interest in residential use of the district," she said. She predicted that real estate values in the area would stay constant or go up.
But not all district residents are convinced that a greater Brown presence would benefit the community.
"It's just my hope that (the district) doesn't get too gentrified," said Cesare De Credico, a 23-year-old who has lived in the district his whole life. "It's a nice, small, calm place," he said. "To lose that identity in the city - I don't think that'd be a good thing."
Thomas Deller, Providence's director of planning and development, said the city appreciates the potential for new jobs that a medical school in the Jewelry District might bring, but he said he worries about lost property tax revenues. Brown's tax-exempt status means that the city would collect fewer tax dollars from the University than it would from a commercial enterprise occupying Jewelry District buildings.
"We'll compromise where we have to compromise," he said. "The important thing for us is that development is happening in a way that is good for the city."
