Pawtucket wants to revive the derelict area around the Apex building. Here's how.

PAWTUCKET – The city wants to hear from developers interested in redeveloping the long-derelict area around the former Apex department store building.

Pawtucket acquired the unusual ziggurat-roofed Apex building for $17.7 million 2½ years ago after protracted negotiations with the former owner led to an eminent domain process and court-approved settlement.

Now the city has combined the Apex building with six other parcels to make a 20-acre area, and this week it put out a request for development proposals to transform the area with a mix of uses, including a waterfront park.

"The overall area subject to this RFP is of a significant scale, holds a central urban location and providesan opportunity to reshape Pawtucket for generations," the request says. "Potential changes willseek to enhance existing businesses and stakeholders and support new development and to eliminateblight. Given the relatively open nature of this RFP and the opportunities contained within this process, the solicitation and selection process will be flexible."

Proposals, which should include a development plan and purchase price, are due Sept. 17. The city hopes to select a developer by October.

Once a bidder is selected, the city intends to enter into a preliminary agreement to plan the project in greater detail before then entering into a long-term lease or sale.

Before the city took over the Apex property, previous owner Andrew Gates tried unsuccessfully to turn it into a shopping center.

Separately, the city has been trying to create a Seekonk River public pathway past the area since 1997.

Then the city identified it as the site of a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox before the baseball team moved to Worcester.

Then the land was made part of the "Tidewater Landing" soccer stadium development plan before that project was downsized to include land only south of Interstate 95.

The city borrowed $20 million to take control of the Apex properties.

In addition to whatever commercial elements the developer proposes, plans for the area should include:

• A recreational component, including, but not be limited to, play structures, splash pads and other public recreation spaces.
• "Reactivating the Seekonk and Blackstone Rivers by providing riverfront access ... a greenway along the river, with pedestrian connections to the south along the river, to the Tidewater redevelopment.
• Pedestrian and bicycle links to other connection points throughout the City.

Encircled by I-95, the Northeast Corridor rail line and the Seekonk River, downtown Pawtucket has long been awkward to navigate by car, bicycle, boat or foot.

The greenway could help connect the under-construction stadium complex not only to downtown, but the new commuter rail station.

Although the city has made no additional commitments to build new infrastructure around Apex, the RFP "allows for Respondents to propose adjustments" to roadways and sidewalks "that may best support the potential development and allow for achievements of the stated goals and objectives."

Asked why the RFP was only going out now after the city has had control of the site for so long, Grace Voll, spokesman for Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien, said the last lease in the Apex building expired in December and the tire center lease doesn't expire until the end of the year.

“The downtown area of the City of Pawtucket is truly transforming before our eyes,” Grebien said in a news release.