PROVIDENCE, R.I. — New York developer Jason Fane has downsized his immediate plans to build a $500-million set of three high-rise, luxury apartment buildings on former highway land in Providence, saying instead on Thursday that he is "ready to proceed immediately" with one 43-story tower at $150 million.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - New York developer Jason Fane has downsized his immediate plans to build a $500-million set of three high-rise, luxury apartment buildings on former highway land in Providence, saying instead on Thursday that he is "ready to proceed immediately" with one 43-story tower at $150 million.

When Fane unveiled his three-tower intentions on Nov. 14, at the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission meeting, he showed bold images of three towers - at 33, 43 and 55 stories tall. He said he'd probably build in phases, but he also said he might move forward with all three towers at the same time.

Now, Fane said the first tower he would build is the 43-story tower, which he told The Journal last month would stand 484 feet tall but now says would stand 440 feet tall.

As for the 55-story tower and the smallest of the three, Fane's Providence spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday: "Fane intends to develop the other two proposed towers in future phases, as market demand allows."

Fane released new architectural renderings Thursday, showing one tower alone, two towers and then three. Fane was not immediately available to speak about his release, spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. said Thursday.

In an e-mail, Bellini said, "This release hopes to clarify any confusion with respect to the plan or the serious nature of Mr. Fane's interest and intent."

In a subsequent interview Thursday, Bellini said project architect Sol Wassermuhl, of Toronto, has shared the latest proposed heights for all three buildings — each 44 feet lower than Fane initially told The Journal last month. Those details released last month were part of the “conceptual vision” that Fane put forth, Bellini said, not by any means expected to be final specific heights.

The latest heights of the buildings, in the order Fane said Thursday he intends to build them, would be 440 feet, 560 feet and 340 feet, Bellini said.

The release urges city and state leaders to support The Fane Organization's proposed Hope Point Towers - "at this watershed moment for reimagining downtown Providence."

"We urge the government leaders to approve our transformative project; to look at our development track record of success and our financial stability," Fane said in the statement. "We think Providence has a unique opportunity to create the residential infrastructure needed to support growth, but we will move on if there isn't support for this vision."

Fane told The Providence Journal last month that if he were to build just one tower first, he would need to build the five-story base that would eventually stretch underneath two of the towers. Otherwise, he said, cars that would park on the top four floors of that base structure wouldn't have enough turning radius underneath one tower.

The images released Thursday show the first tower on the northern part of the 195 land where Fane wants to build, about an acre of land labeled Parcel 42. It shows a base that would eventually support the first and second towers, on land in between Dyer Street and the Providence River, bounded to the north by Dorrance Street and to the south by Ship Street.

Last month, Fane told The Journal that the 55-story tower he proposed to build - and still hopes to build, but at a later stage - would stand 604 feet tall, Fane told The Journal. That would now be 560 feet, Bellini said.

Fane has not yet said how many residential units the towers would accommodate. He said last month that he didn't know prices, sizes or numbers of units, and he didn't know yet if the units would be apartments or condominiums. A rough calculation based on numbers he shared at the 195 meeting indicated that perhaps 2,500 people could live in all three towers.

In the release Thursday, Fane's team relied on the number of floors of Providence's current tallest buildings to compare his towers to the Superman building.

"Some people think that our proposed towers will be much higher than the existing tall buildings in downtown Providence," Fane said in the release. "In fact, the opposite is true. Some confusion was caused by the angle of the rendering, where perspective made Hope Point Towers look much taller than the other Providence towers including the so-called 'Superman' Building. Also, many people don't realize that ceiling heights at Superman are much higher than a typical apartment or residence."

The release went on to say, but not in quotes attributed to Fane: "By reputation, Superman is 26 floors high, but most reference sources, including Brown University, call it 30 floors with the top four, the beacon, not open to the public. Three were used for mechanical equipment and the top floor for a private dining room."

Regardless of how many stories the Superman building stands, what's not in dispute is the number of feet it rises. Providence Assessor David Quinn told The Journal that city records show that building stands 428 feet tall.

With the new heights, Fane’s tallest, 55-story tower would be 132 feet taller than the Superman building. But the first building Fane now wants to build would be only 12 feet taller than the Superman building.

Fane also referenced in his release some of the city’s other tallest buildings, saying that when they were built, they “were also bold moves.” He said that’s what he’s seeking with his high-rise towers: an iconic project that “will become the symbol of Providence.”

As for the Superman building and others built decades ago, Fane said:

“These developments were courageous and exemplify the critical growth steps communities must take to flourish and to tell the world that they are open for business and growing. Providence needs new beacons of recovery and growth, and like Boston, just up the road, needs to make bold and strategic moves and dare to improve the status quo. It is time for Providence to reach higher and be bolder and make such a statement.”

-- This report was updated at 11:18 a.m. and 1:38 p.m.