Quonset 'Gateway' Area Looks To Add Restaurants

The Gateway at Quonset has seen some positive activity this fall. With one office building full and the ground-breaking for a BankNewport branch, developers said they are looking to bring a chain restaurant or two into the complex. Vacancies remain, however, including the vast Lowe's building. 

The Gateway at Quonset Point is the 72.5-acre mixed-use development at the entrance to the business park. 

BankNewport signed a 15-year lease last April and broke ground in October on a 2,000-square-foot branch. Meanwhile, 16 businesses have leased the available office space in the Gateway Offices at Quonset Business Park and plans are in the works for a second office building. 

While the land is owned by QDC, a quasi-governmental agency, Gateway is managed by New Boston Fund, Inc., a private-equity real estate firm. New Boston has a 99-year master lease with the QDC for the entire Gateway parcel.  The tenants pay New Boston, which then pays QDC on the master lease.  

"Interest has picked up again," said New Boston's Greg Hofstetter recently. "Our efforts are towards adding restaurants." He said chain restaurant possibilities included 99, Olive Garden and Ruby Tuesday. Quonset has sewers, making restaurants an easier proposition than in other parts of North Kingstown. 

The Lowe's site presents a different situation. The big-box hardware store owns the 117,000-square-foot building but is leasing the land from QDC through 2028. The store opened in 2009, but closed in 2011. Hofstetter said Lowe's is attempting to lease the space. 

"Nobody likes to see it dark. They're trying to lease it," he said. Lowe's has leased out other vacant buildings to both retail and industrial users, according to Hofstetter, who noted that some of their vacant buildings have been broken up.

Even though Lowe's left town, however, because it owns the building, it is still on the hook to the town for $160,000 in property tax and PILOT payments annually.