The historic Rumford Chemical Works Plant, including the building above, will soon become a residential, commercial and retail complex.
Mixed-use development slated for Rumford site
Plans are under way to redevelop the historic Rumford Chemical Works plant into a mixed-use complex incorporating residential, office and retail space.
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The Peregrine Group, based in Rumford, and Kirkbrae Development, a Lincoln-based firm, formed PK Rumford together to renovate and redevelop the chemical plant, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Twelve buildings, some dating back to the late 1800s, occupy the 8.5-acre property, which is embedded in one of Rumford’s upper-middle-class residential neighborhoods, said Colin Kane, partner of The Peregrine Group.
“We’re preserving almost all of the buildings on the site today,” Kane said, adding that all additions and new construction will be historically accurate. “The buildings are beautiful. We’re just bringing the luster back to the buildings.”
Much of the site today is dilapidated and polluted, but in its heyday, it was something special. Established in 1854, with offices in Providence and manufacturing operations at the East Providence plant, Rumford Chemical Works was the first company in the world to make double-acting baking powder.
Rumford founder Eben Norton Horsford had invented the substance – a vast improvement on the homemade baking powders used at the time – and teamed up with George F. Wilson to start the company, which would become one of the largest and most successful chemical plants in the United States.
Along with baking powder, Rumford made Horsford’s Acid Phosphate, a tonic concentrate used to make a refreshing and supposedly medicinal drink. Using that same powder as well as fruit juices, Rumford also made a sparkling beverage called “Phosa.” Both of the latter items haven’t been sold in three generations, but the baking powder is still popular.
Rumford was purchased by Hulman & Co. in 1950, and production was moved to Terre Haute, Ind. By then, however, the company had made such an imprint on East Providence that the section of the city that it anchored had been named Rumford.
Given the plant’s historic importance, its preservation is good news for the city, said David Kelleher, chairman of the East Providence Historic Properties Commission.
“We are very happy that they are going to retain most of the buildings,” Kelleher said. “With this project the new owners came to us. They wanted us to have input in what they are planning to do.”
Peregrine and Kirkbrae are already involved in another, high-profile development in East Providence: the 54-unit Ross Commons complex in Phillipsdale, part of the revitalization of a key part of the city’s waterfront.
The new undertaking, dubbed “Rumford Center,” is Peregrine’s fourth project in East Providence in the past two years, Kane said. It would create about 150 high-end residential units in a three-story building erected in 1890, most of which would be rented for $1,300 to $2,000 a month, Kane said; coffee shops and delis could occupy some of about 6,000 square feet set aside for convenience retail space, Kane said.
PK Rumford hopes to retain most of the site’s current tenants to help fill the 52,000 square feet of commercial office space, Kane said. The more than 50 tenants include artists, a textile company, the Providence Engineering Society, lawyers, and a high-end dog collar store.
“The city was happy with what was going on there,” Kelleher said. “This of course is a much bigger, better use of the property. … I’m sure it will be a good income for the city.”
The projected cost of the development is $45 million to $55 million over the course of the four to five years it will take to complete; about $1 million of that will be for brownfields cleanup, Kane said.
PK Rumford has been working with the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Waste Management for the past year to treat contaminated soil, though Kane said the site is not heavily polluted. The company will remove underground storage tanks this spring before renovation efforts begin.
City officials have approved rezoning the area from industrial to mixed use, and Kane said he expects final approval within the next four to six months.
In the meantime, the company has applied for historic tax credits and is waiting for that process to be completed. Ethan Sluter, Peregrine’s development manager, was not worried about the possibility that the tax credit would be cut or withdrawn, as has been discussed since Gov. Donald L. Carcieri indicated he was looking to help balance the state’s 2007 budget using cuts in the program.
“The cut would have to be pretty dramatic for us not to proceed,” Sluter said. “We’re very close to securing tax credits. … [And] we feel pretty comfortable for the most part, but you take that chance with development.”
