PROVIDENCE – Often described as the “the last great estate” in Providence, a two-lot property featuring a historic manor, a renovated carriage house building and lush gardens in the Blackstone neighborhood was sold recently at auction for $4 million to a local real estate investor who’s plans to turn it into condominiums.
Dustin Dezube, whose company Providence Living has grown rapidly in recent years, was the winning bidder in an auction for the 3.37-acre 460 Rochambeau Ave. property. The home was previously listed on the open market in 2021 for as much as $7.9 million but failed to attract any buyers. In 2012, it was listed for as much as $9.5 million.
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The estate located next to Blackstone Boulevard was listed last year by Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty and auctioned recently online by Concierge Auctions. Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty said the $4 million has not closed yet.
The property is highlighted by a 9,000-square-foot manor built in 1915 for Rhode Island School of Design professor William E. Brigham and his heiress wife, designed by Eleazor Homer in a Mediterranean stucco villa style.
Known as The William E. and Clara A. Bridgham Estate, the property also features a separate, renovated 1,970-square-foot carriage house, an attached two-story gallery with vaulted ceilings and skylights. The manor includes an atrium with a courtyard and between the buildings, the park-like grounds surrounded by a stone wall include greenhouses, a fountain, a maze of hedges, an orchard, a grape arbor, flower gardens and a pergola that leads from the main house to a terrace.
“I think that it’s a tremendously special and unique property,” Dezube said. “It’s the last private estate on the East Side of Providence. This is an opportunity to preserve prominent parts and features of the estate, and pay homage to the historic character of the land and building, while at the same time creating more housing, which is so desperately needed.”
Dezube said the condominiums that he’s planning to develop there “will be the nicest condos on the East Side” of Providence.
“They’ll truly be special,” Dezube said. “There’ll be nothing else like them that has access to this kind of private garden and landscaping. The location is also an A+ location.”
The property last sold in 2015 for $4 million. The 460 Rochambeau Ave. property was last assessed by the city in 2021 to be worth about $3.2 million, according to public records, although this sale also included the empty land at 440 Rochambeau Ave., valued by the city last year at $596,000.
In 2015, a plan by former owners Leonard Granoff and Paul Granoff, to subdivide the property to create 10 new house lots was rejected by the Providence Planning Commission.
Dezube said he’s been meeting with the Providence Preservation Society, along with planning and zoning officials, in an effort to come up with “a tasteful proposal to preserve the historic mansion and celebrate the impressive landscape features found at the site.” Dezube said he’s also met with several neighbors and Ward 2 Councilwoman Helen Anthony about his plans for the property.
“It’s exciting,” Dezube said. “We’ve all had a really productive meeting and I look forward to working with everyone to come up with a thoughtful, respectful development there. What’s it going to become – that remains to be determined. We’re considering several condo buildings, or detached townhouse condos. That’s what I’m working with the city on.”
A condominium project would require approval from the City Planning Commission and City Council, Dezube said.
Currently, city zoning regulations for the property allow use by right for single family homes, Dezube said.
“No one really wants to see that,” Dezube said. “So, I’m working with the city on an alternative, which is this development. As part of the development. I would deed restrict parts of the gardens and landscape features so they couldn’t be built upon, in order to preserve them.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
Sounds like a Superman building on the East Side.