AS220, BankRI share pride in Dreyfus Hotel

After about two years of redevelopment efforts, the former Dreyfus Hotel downtown is almost ready to open as an ornate restaurant and pub, street-level art gallery and artists’ studios.
AS220 received its certificate of occupancy last week and hopes to open the four story mixed-use building at the corner of Washington and Mathewson streets next month, said Lucie Searle, development manager for the Providence-based nonprofit arts organization, which owns and operates a similar mixed-use location on Empire Street.
What’s unique about AS220 at the Dreyfus is its partnership with Bank Rhode Island to make the $7.5 million project happen.
Though it’s not uncommon to have these types of partnerships, Searle said, it is unique to find a partner as enthusiastic and supportive as BankRI has been throughout the process.
In addition to hand-holding through a very complicated financial process that required 10 sources of funding – including state and federal historic tax credits, a “new markets” tax credit, an acquisition loan from the City of Providence and a construction “bridge” loan handled by BankRI and Bank of America – BankRI helped AS220 get more than $1 million in funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Affordable Housing Program.
The only way to qualify for the regional affordable housing program was to be sponsored by a member bank. BankRI was AS220’s sponsor.
Competition for the funds is very steep, said Peter Walsh, senior vice president retail lending and community relations at BankRI.
“It’s the biggest award that we’ve ever gotten,” said Walsh, also the key contact for the project.
AS220 received a $300,000 direct grant from the program in addition to a $710,047 subsidized advance and a reduced, fixed interest rate for the life of AS220’s 30-year loan with BankRI, which also acted as the arts organization’s permanent lender for the project.