Chace to buy ProJo HQ from Belo, looks to maintain office space

PROVIDENCE – The Providence Journal building is under agreement for sale to local development company Cornish Associates, which hopes to close on the property by the end of March, according to Arnold B. “Buff” Chace Jr., managing general partner for Cornish.
The property, at 75 Fountain St., is the headquarters for The Providence Journal offices. It is owned by A.H. Belo Corp., of Dallas, which retained the building after it sold the newspaper business in September to Gatehouse Media, a subsidiary of New Media Investment Group Inc.
The Journal’s lease for the office space expires in September. Chace said he hoped to keep the newspaper as a tenant. “I would like to retain the Providence Journal in the building. They’re looking to reduce the space they currently are occupying.”
Janet Hasson, the newly named publisher of The Providence Journal, has not yet started in the new position. Interim Publisher Bernard Szachara could not be reached Monday night for comment.
A representative of Belo also could not be reached.
The production facilities for The Providence Journal and other Gatehouse properties are located less than a mile northwest of the Fountain Street building on Kinsley Avenue.
According to Chace, the purchase is contingent on a due diligence process. He would not disclose the proposed sale price. According to the Providence Assessor’s database, the property was assessed at $10.4 million in 2014.
The site includes two parking areas, and can be re-purposed to house not only the newspaper offices, but also retail and other commercial uses, Chace said.
“We’re trying to make downtown a more attractive place to live, work and play. When a building becomes available, if by our intervention we can add to the diversity of people living, working and playing downtown, then we’re interested in that.”
Cornish Associates, or one of its affiliates, would own the property, he said. Although the development company is well known for rehabilitating historic buildings in downtown Providence for conversion to apartments, Chace said apartments would not be appropriate for the Journal building. The building, which was erected in 1932, is more suited to offices, he said.
The exterior of the five-story structure has been well-maintained and would remain the same, he said.
Cornish first took interest in the property two years ago.
“It’s a wonderful building and it’s an important building downtown. We want to revitalize it.”
Cornish plans to modernize the utility systems of the building and refurbish the lobby. At one point, 1,000 people worked in the building. Fewer than 250 work on Fountain Street now, Chace said, but he hoped the newspaper company would decide to keep the jobs downtown.
“We need to keep those jobs downtown.”

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