Paolino purchases three properties downtown for $60M

THE PYRAMID-SHAPED tower at 100 Westminster St. and the five-story red brick building adjacent to it at 30 Kennedy Plaza are two of the properties purchased by Paolino Properties, along with the Weybosset Street Metropark lot at 110 Westminster. / COURTESY GOOGLE MAPS
THE PYRAMID-SHAPED tower at 100 Westminster St. and the five-story red brick building adjacent to it at 30 Kennedy Plaza are two of the properties purchased by Paolino Properties, along with the Weybosset Street Metropark lot at 110 Westminster. / COURTESY GOOGLE MAPS

(Updated, 3:10 p.m.)

PROVIDENCE – Paolino Properties has purchased a package of three high-profile properties in Providence’s Financial District for $60 million, the company announced Wednesday.

The acquisitions include the 20-story tower at 100 Westminster St., the five-story building next door at 30 Kennedy Plaza and the Weybosset Street Metropark lot across the street that features the propped-up façade of the former Providence National Bank Building.

The seller was O’Connor Capital Partners, which paid $58 million for 100 Westminster St. alone in 2006.

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A reddish-brown granite tower opened in 1984, 100 Westminster has 390,000 square feet of office space and is home to tenants including Providence Equity Partners, Nortek, Hinckley Allen and Bank of America. The building is around 90 percent occupied.

Paolino Properties Managing Partner Joseph R. Paolino Jr. said he intends to upgrade the lobby, which O’Connor renovated in 2008, to include a restaurant and gallery-like space with art.

Built in 1930, 30 Kennedy Plaza has roughly 35,000 square feet of office space and is home to a Citizens Bank branch.

Paolino, a former Providence mayor, said he hopes to bring a boutique hotel to the historic building as early as next year.

At the 110 Westminster St. parking lot, all but the façade of the National Bank Building was torn down to make way for a 40-story condominium tower that was never built.

The city allowed the parking lot to open as a “temporary use” in July 2012.

Paolino said he hopes to save the facade within a new development on the lot, but doesn’t have any firm plans for it yet.

Because of the need for tenant parking at his other properties, Paolino said any development would include a parking garage. If feasible he would also like to incorporate a supermarket at street level.

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