“It should be a project that is extremely affordable, extremely feasible, and will improve the life of everybody.”
Originally published by ecoRI News, a nonprofit newsroom covering environmental news in Rhode Island. Read more at ecoRI.org
By Eric Halvarson / ecoRI News contributor
PROVIDENCE — In 2023, a nonprofit flower farm had big plans to transform the site of an abandoned Olneyville factory into healthy soil where it could triple flower production and build a new facility for training florists.
Instead, in October 2024, the farm agreed to sell the site to a local developer for $1.4 million. The 2.7-acre plot once slated for urban farmland is now primed to become a mixed-use apartment building and parking garage.
The Flower District, formerly known as What Cheer Flower Farm, donates flowers to organizations across the state. In 2018, it began to grow its flowers just a stone’s throw from nine crumbling factory buildings on the corner of Dike and Agnes streets. Where the ghosts of industry stood, the team envisioned vast fields of flowers covering a city block and a florist training facility, complete with solar panels and an event terrace.
“We had these models that looked incredible, and everyone was really excited,” said Cindy Miranda, president of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association. Groups like ONA offered feedback on the plans, representing a community that faces myriad environmental justice issues, including crumbling infrastructure, flooding, and a lack of green space. “A lot of the homeowners here are worried about their homes with flooding,” Miranda said. “It’s getting worse every single year.”
In 2019, Providence’s Climate Justice Plan named Olneyville a “frontline community,” a term referring to “communities of color most impacted by the crises of ecology, economy and democracy.”
“In the past, a lot of manufacturers came out of Olneyville,” City Council member Oscar Vargas said. “With this help of the community, we’ve been doing a lot of these cleanups, little by little.”
By 2023, the farm was using funds from the state Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency to demolish the old factory structures and remediate industrial pollution. At a press conference in May 2023, EPA New England regional administrator David Cash said the site would be “providing flowers, greenspace, and training to those who need it most.”
But those plans have changed.
“When I came on, we were left with a lot of debt by a past leader,” said Shannon Brawley, the nonprofit’s executive director, who joined The Flower District in 2023. The organization’s staff and board of directors searched for ways to reduce the financial burdens but ultimately decided to sell two-thirds of the property. “It was a hard decision, but we also wanted to stay alive, right?”
“We had started as an organization to grow flowers and give them away, but … growing flowers on the urban land is very expensive: water, sewer, property taxes,” said Erin Achenbach, The Flower District’s director of programming and land management.
The team realized there may be a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to fulfill their mission of spreading flowers. They decided to create a service retrieving and redistributing decorative blossoms being thrown away by the event industry, such as lavish floral arrangements for weddings.
“We really turned as an organization to focus on that circular mission of recycling flowers and composting and supporting communities,” Achenbach said. “We no longer had need as an organization for 2.7 acres of open growing space.”
According to public records, the flower farm agreed to sell all but a fraction of the property at 28 Agnes St. to local entrepreneur and developer Idrees Lanre Ajakaiye, once site remediation is complete. Ajakaiye’s group, Green District PVD, which owns two other properties in the area, has released renderings for 28 Agnes St. advertising a 200-unit apartment building with 7,500 square feet of retail space and a three-story parking garage.
“In that area, where people go there mostly for wieners and for Fête, that would create a whole new neighborhood in Providence. That would bring 400 to 700 people in that area,” Ajakaiye said. “I’m probably working on one of the most important projects, if it comes to fruition, for Providence and for transforming that corridor in Olneyville.”
Ajakaiye said he is planning to reserve 35% of the units for affordable housing, but he admitted those plans are uncertain.
“I can’t say I know what the outcome of what I’m doing is going to be,” said Ajakaiye, who said his plans are contingent on city and state incentives for developers. He pointed to the $120 million in housing bonds recently approved by Rhode Island voters as an example of a policy that could enable more affordable housing, if it were directed toward his properties. “The real stories are: when tax incentives and tax credits and the different loan programs come out, are they going to be positioned toward the community needs?”
ONA expressed concern that the new plans might invite higher-income tenants to the area and displace current residents.
“It’s just the pattern of gentrification,” said ONA executive director Eloi Rodas, who suggested the site could host public housing rather than a private development. “It should be a project that is extremely affordable, extremely feasible, and will improve the life of everybody.”
“People here have deep roots in the community,” said Miranda, who believes it’s “unfair” to say the neighborhood, featuring dozens of businesses, artist spaces, and lots of activity, only offers wieners and a music venue. “We don’t want a mini-Boston in our backyards that we can’t access or afford. They’re missing the greater things.”
Local political leaders are welcoming new development in the area but also want to address rising costs of city rents and taxes.
“We know that we have a crisis in housing,” Vargas said. “If we need to help [Ajakaiye], he will have to come to the City Council or city finance with a proposal, and that’s where we go on to make a decision.”
“Any development of housing is great, but I’m always pushing for affordable housing, low-income housing,” said Rep. Enrique Sanchez, a Democrat who represents District 9, which includes Olneyville. “I don’t want to see that property turn into some luxury development or housing that doesn’t meet people’s income levels.”
Ajakaiye said he is not looking to build luxury residences and will be looking for community input moving forward.
“I’m not like the private developer that doesn’t listen to all the people around them,” he said. “My intention is building a mixed-use development that empowers a community … if I’m allowed to.”
Though it appears there will be significantly less green space on the block than originally planned, The Flower District is proud to have mitigated pollution on this neighborhood brownfield. They estimate the site remediation will be complete by May, and the farm’s remaining acre will continue to be an ecological haven for the community.
“Now that we kind of see the remediation on the horizon, we are looking at what is the best use of this green space,” Achenbach said. The group is going to conduct more outreach, asking their Olneyville neighbors how the farm’s property, which maintains high tunnels for growing and a little blue barn, could be used as a public space for workshops, weddings and relaxation. “The community piece … will be working to actually define what that green space is within our one acre, as well as our little environmental hub.”
