A Johnston real estate developer wants to be the first private party to dig into the land left behind by the Route 195 relocation project, offering the state a multifaceted vision for its vacant highway property in the Fox Point section of Providence.

Carpionato Group envisions a series of buildings and outdoor spaces including a hotel, town houses, a restaurant, research laboratories, three parking garages, shops and public spaces linked by pedestrian bridges — one a Ponte Vecchio-inspired span over Wickenden Street; the other a more utilitarian structure above South Water Street connecting a retail plaza to a park along the Providence River.

It would cost an estimated $254 million and would support the equivalent of 900 full-time jobs.

Carpionato has in the past proposed a large retail complex at the site of the old Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse (which they tore down) and a hotel tower on the triangle parcel near Kennedy Plaza. Neither project ever happened.

A suburban developer’s project design reviewed by a Commission chaired by a suburban developer, this is the problem with the 195 Commission.