By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
Johnson and Wales University has officially purchased the former Port Edgewood Marina in Cranston.
The school closed on the purchase on April 20 and paid $2.65 million. The 3.2 acre property off Narragansett Boulevard on the Cranston-Providence line was originally listed for $3.2 million according to a listing from Denenberg Realty.
The marina comes with a 10,000 square foot office building, a 23,474 square foot boat storage facility and 154 boat slips.
Lisa Pelosi, the executive director of communications and media relations for JWU, says the marina will be the new home of the men’s and women’s sailing teams, as well as the new women’s rowing program.
Formerly, the teams were housed at the nearby Save the Bay facility.
The school will also take advantage of the office space for coaches and other staff. The ample parking at the marina will be utilized as well.
“We’re excited that it comes with so much parking,” Pelosi told WPRO News on Friday. “Adjacent to the port is our Harbor View residence hall that has a function room that can welcome up to about 200 people, and this would provide additional parking for when we have university events there”
The marina won’t be used by the school until the 2015-16 school year. Over the summer Pelosi said they will work to repair the docks and transform the existing interior of the building into offices for their coaches and staff.
Though private boat owners will no longer be able to rent slips there, the school will continue to allow the City of Cranston to keep fire boats at the marina; the same will apply to boats belonging to the Narragansett Bay Commission.
The property also came with a registered, private helipad, but Pelosi said there won’t be any JWU helicopters taking to the sky.
“We will be decommissioning that through the FAA. We do not have the use for a helicopter pad,” she said.
Pelosi said the property will now fall under their memorandum of understanding with the city that permits the school to pay property taxes in incrementally decreasing rates until they pay nothing.
The school has not yet decided what they will be calling the new facility.
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