On the corner of West-minster and Mathewson Streets in Providence – where
almost four years ago real estate owner Stanley Weiss erected a park,
now in disrepair, and a pair of storefronts, still without tenants –
commerce might finally bloom.
Not only has a prominent coffee roaster signed a lease for one of the
spaces, but talks with a jazz club proprietor and designs for an urban
bed and breakfast are under way, according to Weiss.
“I feel that this is the year. If it’s not, then it’s very unfortunate
for all of us,” Weiss said, gazing cater-corner from his windowed office
at the Tilden-Thurber Co. to the L-shaped development.
At stake for Weiss is about $120,000 spent on what he named the Robert
E. Freeman Park across the street from historic Grace Church, the
approximately $450,000 that went into the north and west storefronts,
and the unknown dollars required to restore the Lederer and a former
hotel turned college dorm, rising above and mirroring the so-called
“liner” buildings.
At risk for project architects Michael Abbott and Jay Litman is the time
and energy they’ll have poured into new and old buildings, hoping that
their vision will hold.
A cautious Weiss is optimistic.
“The area appears to be in transition now,” Weiss said. “You have
certain elements of the community that are shifting out of the area.”
Weiss was referring to the drugs, violence and homelessness that have
pervaded the area bounded by Dorrance, Mathewson, Weybosset, and
Washington Streets in recent years: the area Mayor Vincent A. Cianci has
somewhat prematurely dubbed the arts & entertainment district.
Also key to re-energizing the project was a deal Weiss struck with
Johnson & Wales over what was the Blackstone Hotel until the early 1980s
and is now Bell Hall. The school traded the dormitory for a building
Weiss owned on Weybosset and “some cash,” Weiss said. Bell Hall, along
with the Lederer, will be converted into the ‘bed and breakfast,’ Weiss
said.
Weiss expects his dream to start taking shape by Valentine’s Day. That’s
when Ed Field, former president of coffee milk giant Autocrat Inc. of
Lincoln, expects to open a gourmet coffee shop in the north building.
Field, who has worked as a consultant since 1990, said he considered
about 75 places between here and Boston before settling on Weiss’
property in Grace Square. “I was looking for a place that seemed to be
exciting and innovative and creative, and this (space) seemed to
optimize the kind of thing that I wanted to do,” he said.
Field and Weiss said they have a loose agreement that Field’s place will
serve breakfast to Weiss’ guests in the connecting hotel.
“It’ll be a tourism area,” Weiss said. “This is sort of the hole in the center of the doughnut.”Stanley Weiss
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Weiss and his architects know people look at the properties and call
them a failure. But they easily brush that off. The buildings have been
vacant for so long not because they were undesirable to tenants, they
say. Rather, the interested tenants – such as fast food restaurants –
were undesirable to Weiss, Abbot said.
“Stan could have filled it many times over,” he said. “He just wanted to
reserve it for that higher purpose.”
Weiss envisions an area similar to the French Quarter of New Orleans’ –
a spot where tourists can take in the beauty of old Providence on trips
to PPAC, Trinity, the Rhode Island Convention Center, or Providence
Place mall.
“It’ll be a tourism area,” Weiss said. “This is sort of the hole in the
center of the doughnut.”
Weiss plans to decorate the 100-bed, $75 to $90-a-night B & B with
period pieces and reproduction antiques. The point, he said, is to
create something completely different from lodging options now in
downtown Providence in order to “fill a niche.”
The B & B is in the design phase, Weiss said, adding that he hopes to
begin construction as soon as this summer.
