For decades, most businesses have struggled to survive on Mathewson Street in downtown Providence.
Among the few long-term, successful businesses such as Hotel Providence, Cellar Stories Book Store and Blake’s Tavern, there are numerous empty storefronts, including a stretch of more than six between Washington and Weybosset streets.
Some of these spaces are nearly ready for a retailer to move in, while others need an extensive overhaul to make them appealing.
Before the pandemic arrived in March, real estate developer Cornish Associates LP launched the renovation of three historical buildings along Westminster Street, including the Lapham Building, which also has a storefront on Mathewson Street. The $44 million restoration project continued through the public health crisis, as did another Cornish development – the construction of the new Nightingale apartment building at 100 Mathewson St.
But the pandemic has delayed at least one other project along Mathewson – the former Rialto Theater at 119-227 Mathewson St., once the site of a church, and then a vaudeville theater before it became the Rialto in 1919.
Concrete stadium-style benches remain on the vacant second floor, a reminder of the building’s previous life. In recent times, the street-level stores have held a Chinese restaurant, a news stand and a high-end sneaker store. All are gone, leaving behind dilapidated spaces that stand in stark contrast to the elegant appearance of the neighboring Hotel Providence.
‘Every time you bring in a ... business venture, it’s going to add vibrancy.’
DANIEL FEINER, MG Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. vice president
“Mathewson Street may be one of the most struggling landscapes of downtown,” said Joanna Levitt, the commercial leasing manager for Cornish. “The buildings that are empty there have been that way for ... some time now.”
But the Rialto Theater building’s owner, Seth Shapiro, envisions reverting the property he purchased for $780,000 in February 2019 back to one of its original purposes: a performance space. He said he wants to turn the first floor into a bar and restaurant while upstairs will become a “mini House of Blues” that could fit approximately 300 to 500 people, he said.
“There were all these great little venues in downtown back in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s,” said Shapiro. Many small performance venues have since been renovated into condos, Shapiro said. “I feel like there isn’t anything like that anymore in the downtown area.”
Reawakening the theater, which has been listed on the Providence Preservation Society’s “Most Endangered Properties” list, would add vibrancy to a down-and-out stretch of downtown. “If we get a quality tenant or establishment in the Rialto, I think it will help spark development for the others,” said Shapiro.
Perhaps not just on Mathewson but throughout downtown, which has several projects that are finishing construction but have empty ground-level areas. Levitt said Cornish is speaking to prospective tenants for the commercial space of its newly finished Nightingale building, a five-story building that filled a parcel that was once the parking lot for the Providence Journal.
At 170 Mathewson St. – the 922-square-foot renovated storefront of Cornish’s Lapham Building that faces Mathewson – a food and beverage company is expected to move in as soon as agreements are finalized. Levitt would not yet identify the company.
The Rialto building is nearly a shell of a building, with plaster and concrete walls but without electricity or heating, ventilation and air conditioning. It’s a big project that will cost well over $1 million, said Shapiro.
Daniel Feiner and Michael Volpe, vice presidents at MG Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., are the brokers for 183-185 Mathewson St., two 800-square-foot spaces ready for tenants, either as separate spaces or one combined space. The price, Feiner said, is negotiable, but he is hoping for a retailer to go inside.
“It’s quiet in downtown right now, but it’s a very good location,” said Feiner, noting its proximity to the Providence Performing Arts Center, Ellie’s cafe and Latin American restaurant Berrí. “Every time you bring in a new concept or business venture, it’s going to add vibrancy to the neighborhood.”
That space has been empty for nearly three years. The ground floor of a building across the street is vacant, too.
Daniel Park, property manager of Parks Realty Investment Co. LLC, said he has an 850-square-foot space at 182 Mathewson St. – a three-story clapboard building constructed in 1870 – for $1,700 a month that has been deserted since a shoe consignment store left in March.
Revitalizing the neighborhood is important to Shapiro, a lifelong Rhode Islander. The Rialto is a passion project of his after he was one of the owners of The Strand Ballroom & Theatre on Washington Street from 2000 through 2013. To him, filling vacant spaces such as the Rialto will be the first step in a post-coronavirus era to help stabilize the economy.
“There’s enough condos in Providence right now,” said Shapiro. “We need to start focusing on why people moved here in the first place.”
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com.
