At long last, state ready to plan a marina for the waterside part of the site, which might trigger plans for a public food market on the parcel.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Seven years after Rhode Island voters approved buying the former Shooters nightclub site on the Providence waterfront to turn it into a recreational destination, plans to redevelop the vacant lot may finally be inching forward.

The state Department of Environmental Management wants to build a fishing pier, transient boating marina and ferry dock at the site, which the agency purchased for $3.2 million with the proceeds of a 2010 state bond.

The details and budget for these shoreline projects are still being worked out, but DEM Director Janet Coit said Thursday that preliminary plans show a 200-plus-foot, L-shaped fishing pier that could accommodate the Providence-Newport ferry, boat slips and dinghy storage.

The DEM has hired Pare Engineering on a $170,000 contract to perform site work and help plan the project, according to agency spokeswoman Gail Mastrati.

Advocates for developing the site hope that finishing plans for the marina will allow action to kick into gear on the long-languishing 1.4-acre land side of the property.

David Dadekian, founder of Eat Drink Rhode Island, hopes to build a public food market on the site, but has so far made only minimal progress and said he needs the state to finish its plans for the entire property before he can seek financing.

"I remain cautiously optimistic," Dadekian said Thursday after attending a meeting with the DEM and Pare Engineering last week about the waterside plans for the property.

"I thought their plans for the transient boating docks looked beautiful," Dadekian said. "In theory, if all goes according to the timeline, we could get a plan by the end of next year to take to potential investors."

Dadekian said he hopes to use a mix of public and private financing for the food market, including loans, federal grants and Rhode Island Commerce Corporation incentives.

He said he has already burned through a $300,000 Rhode Island Foundation Innovation Fellowship on design work and consultants for the Central Market project, which is now estimated to cost between $8 million and $10 million.

On Thursday, Coit said planning the marina has taken longer than the state expected, and officials hadn't realized the food market project couldn't move forward until it was done.

"We are still progressing together," Coit said about Eat Drink RI and the DEM. "[Dadekian] continues to be the vendor who responded to the [Shooters] bid and we continue to be excited about the proposal."

Built in 1990, the Shooters nightclub led a brief and controversial existence that featured a spring break aesthetic, bankruptcies and an eventual name change to Bootleggers.

The property was purchased by the state Department of Transportation in 2000 and used as a staging area for the relocation of Route 195.

When the highway project was finished, East Side residents blocked plans to allow the construction of apartments on the site and pushed for the DEM to buy it as part of a $14.7-million recreation bond. The 2010 bond, which passed overwhelmingly, also financed the acquisition of the former Rocky Point amusement park in Warwick.

The DEM took possession of the land in 2012, demolished the nightclub building, and, in an initial request for development proposals (RFP), received one bid from a group looking to construct a concert venue. That plan dissolved for lack of financing.

A second RFP in 2015 brought back only Dadekian's bid.

While he still hopes to build at the Shooters site, Dadekian has proposed a separate West Park Food Hall in an existing privately owned building in Providence's Valley neighborhood.

The West Park project would be more restaurant focused than the Central Market and Dadekian is trying to raise $119,000 in donations for the project on the website Kickstarter.

— panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_