Some 3 1/2 years ago, city officials put out the welcome mat to allow Patricia Brown to park her idle dining car, covered by a blue tarp, sitting rent-free on a city-owned vacant lot on Middle Street.

Then they waited. And waited.

Now they’re hoping to finally get a definitive answer on her intentions for finally putting the classic Kullman dining car, which operated in Providence’s Promenade area for 60 years as the Silver Top diner, to reuse.

City Planner Michael Cassidy, who is also executive director of the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, said Tuesday Brown has an appointment to meet with him today.

Cassidy said the PRA, at its meeting last month, directed him to determine Brown’s intentions on the long-delayed project, which for years has been marked by a series of delays ascribed -- over and over -- to much the same reasons.

"The word ‘eviction’ never crossed anybody’s lip at the meeting. It was that we need to move along and need to get something going," Cassidy said. "No one ever said we were going to kick her out or evict her."

But after the news surfaced that PRA is anxious to bring finality to the matter, inquiries began coming in about reviving the Silver Top if Brown bows out, Cassidy said, He said has not returned those calls pending today’s meeting with Brown, of Smithfield.

It was March 12, 2002 that Brown had the Silver Top hauled to Middle Street, where it sits on landowned by the city and PRA.

The city, led by Herbert Weiss, economic and cultural affairs officer, warmly welcomed Brown’s dining car for its economic development potential. Just prior to the move, PRA granted her a $100,000, 15-year loan at 5 percent.

Cassidy said he believes the diner’s prior owner, Bernard Bouncervello, sold her the Silver Top for $1 around the time of the move here. Providence had previously given Bouncervello $60,000 in relocation funds because it was redeveloping the Promenade area. Brown had worked then operated the diner for Bouncervello for several years.

But the Middle Street site, once home to the notorious Jan’s Place bar, poses difficulties including regrading, steep drops in elevation at the rear and down the Blake Street side, a needed retaining wall, and a new kitchen and handicapped accessible bathrooms needed before it could reopen.

The PRA-approved loan was to help Brown with relocation expenses including getting the diner towed here, as well as a new foundation and the kitchen buildout.

Neighbors even before the diner was hauled here began complaining of what they said was her intention to be open all night, as the Silver Top had been in Providence.

In August 2002, the Zoning Board gave approval to site the diner closer to the road.

At a City Council hearing later that month, Brown had her supporters but most neighbors voiced objections including traffic and noise issues in opposing a license to allow the diner to operate 24 hours. City Councilor David Moran, who represents the area, also voiced concerns.

Brown then began looking at possible 24-hour sites elsewhere in the state though without success.

Since then, the diner’s only use was as an interior backdrop for a R.I. School of Design student film called "Space Theater," shot there in January 2003.

Last spring, the city for less than $5,000 engaged architect Rick Lefferts of Commonweal Collaborative to complete a business plan for Brown.

Cassidy said Brown recently has "had a contractor looking at the project to see if he could value-engineer" some of the construction work to reduce costs.

He said when the PRA put that work out for bid a few years ago, it received no responses. "The problem," at a time when there was a lot of construction work around, "was it was too small for the big guys and too big for the small guys," he recalled.

If Brown were to move ahead, Cassidy said the city and PRA lots would be combined for PRA and sold to her for $1.

If the property was later sold, PRA would take a percentage of the sale price which would decline on a sliding scale until reaching zero, depending on the number of years until the sale.

Cassidy acknowledged that 3 1/2 years is "absolutely" a long time for the diner to be sitting rent-free on city property, without any time restriction put in from the start, but noted, "hindsight’s 20-20."

After today’s meeting, Brown will respond to PRA "with a definitive plan, so I expect something in writing from her," Cassidy said.

Originally published online here: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15330118&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6