The former headquarters of the Visiting Nurse Association of Rhode Island will soon be available for luxury condominium living.
The building, also known as the Gammell House, located on Providence’s East Side, was sold for $650,000 last year to developer Churchill & Banks.
The condos will range in price from $265,000 to $750,000.
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E. Colby Cameron, former chairman of the board for VNA-RI, said he thinks condominiums are "the best and highest uses" for the building.
"That kind of residential real estate is as scarce as a hound’s tooth on the East Side," he said.
Cameron said Churchill & Banks General Partner Richard Baccari took a big economic risk with the Gammell House, but thinks it will be worth it.
The three-floor house, built in 1857, will be converted into seven condominium units. There will be an elevator and a garden terrace. Sally Lapides, president of Residential Properties Ltd., the company that is marketing the condos, said this property is different from other recent Providence condominium projects like the Alice Building, Two Thomas Street and 755 Westminster Street.
"Most recent condominium developments have been loft condominiums in manufacturing buildings or new construction in downtown office buildings," she said.
Residential Properties’ showing agent Ellen Kasle said tenants can expect "the level of amenity that someone buying within this price range can expect," such as marble foyers, granite countertops, hardwood floors, central air, and cherry cabinets in the kitchen.
The biggest condo unit is a 2,254-square-foot space on the third floor, which will cost $650,000. The biggest unit is not the most expensive because, Kasle said, when the house belonged to Benjamin Buffum, an agent for the Commercial Steamboat Company in the 1800s, the third floor was the servants’ quarters.
"There’s less ceiling height there and less architectural detail on the third floor," she said.
Lapides said her company has already received several phone calls about the units.
"It’s very clear that there is a pent-up demand for historic architecture being broken up into beautiful units," she said. "And we haven’t seen many of these in the past 10 to 12 years."
Lapides said a good portion of the inquiries she has received have been from empty-nesters and single people in their 40s and 50s. Kasle said the demand is coming from all sorts of people.
"I think it’s going to be interesting to find out what kind of tenants we do eventually have," she said. "The smaller units could easily go to somebody who just wants an in-town place, maybe in addition to a place in the country. It could be a student whose parents have the means to purchase something for them while there for four years."
