Green in E. Greenwich - New England Tech campus to feature environmental core

EAST GREENWICH - New England Institute of Technology yesterday announced plans to create a "green campus" on 200 acres of land it has assembled in East Greenwich.

During a news conference held inside a vacant three-story building on the site, New England Tech president Richard I. Gouse outlined plans for using environmentally friendly building techniques to minimize the development's impact on the environment. At the same time, Gouse and other New England Tech officials outlined their efforts to craft a "green-collar" curriculum offering students specialties in the burgeoning fields of environmental design, building and maintenance.

While the Warwick-based technical college already trains its students in the use and maintenance of energy-efficient technologies, the classes now under development eventually will offer at least three levels of certification or degree programs in the field.

"While these steps are small in solving the problems associated with becoming energy responsible on a global scale, I hope they are symbols of the need to collectively reduce our impact on the environment," Gouse said.

New England Tech previously disclosed plans to buy the vacant office building and 25 acres of land at the former Rocky Hill Fairgrounds in East Greenwich, filling a gap in properties the school is assembling for a proposed campus. The building had been intended as the corporate headquarters for the Brooks-Eckerd drugstore chain, a business that was subsequently bought by rival Rite Aid Corp.

Yesterday, Gouse said New England Tech has paid Rite Aid $30 million for the land and the 285,000-square-foot building.

The vacant structure will be converted for use as an academic building in the first phase in a years-long project to create a campus on mostly vacant land southeast of the Route 95-Route 4 connector. To be built "from scratch" in four phases, the campus will have housing for at least 1,000 students, as well as athletic fields, administrative offices and other academic buildings.

Construction work would start in three to five years, Gouse said.

Residents of the adjacent Taylor Pointe condominium complex worry that the campus will disrupt their lives and push down the value of their properties.

New England Tech officials have met with Taylor Pointe residents, Gouse noted yesterday, and are trying to address their concerns.

The latest plans for the campus leave development of the East Greenwich Golf & Country Club, which lies to the west of Taylor Pointe, to the last work phase. The plans also would shift athletic fields and a field house east from the golf course to the campus section nearest South County Trail.

"We're considering all of their concerns," Gouse said. "We certainly want to be good neighbors. I don't know how much more we can do than that."

Governor Carcieri, an East Greenwich native, gave his imprimatur to New England Tech's plans during yesterday's news conference.

"The opportunities are endless; the pressure is there; it's the right thing to do," he said. "I believe [the campus] will be a great addition to the town."

In a video presentation that opened yesterday's news conference, Gouse said: "Our history positions us to successfully complete this mission."

New England Tech will present its campus plans to the town's planning board tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Swift Gym.

pgrimald@projo.com / (401) 277-7356

Captions:

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

Richard I. Gouse, left, president of New England Institute of Technology, confers with Daniel Paquette, of DPS Development Co. LLC, of New York, Robert Chew, president of Solar Wrights, of Bristol, and Governor Carcieri after yesterday's news conference unveiling the school's plan for a "green" campus in East Greenwich. The college's newly acquired building appears below.