be known as The Cosmopolitan.
Palmer Block is latest historic renovation project in downtown
Providence slated for high-end homes
Downtown Providence’s old Palmer Block building, most recently a place where travelers caught the Greyhound bus, is being transformed into The Cosmopolitan, where the city’s more affluent residents can hang their hats to the tune of up to $1 million.
Businessmen Edward Shore and Bob Russell are turning the dilapidated building on 100 Fountain St. into 12 luxury condominiums. Palmer is another in a string of restoration projects targeted by developers hoping to breathe new life into the city’s long-forgotten historic buildings.
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The Fountain Street location represents a sharp departure for a neighborhood that includes empty storefronts and a nightclub that features exotic dancers.
Shore and Russell have funded their $7 million-plus project themselves, and with the help of a Sovereign Bank loan.
The partners are targeting baby boomers and empty-nesters, who are leaving the East Side for large, low-maintenance luxury residences downtown. Out-of-towners and young professional couples have also already expressed interest in the seven-story Cosmopolitan. Shore said he has purchase and sales agreements for two units and two more might be taken within the week.
“People define luxury in different ways,” Shore said. “Other places, it’s not that they’re not luxury, but this is high luxury – Manhattan luxury. Everything that goes into the building will be of the highest quality. This is something you would see in Boston or other metropolitan areas.”
The condos – either 2,335 or 1,905 square feet in size, with two bedrooms and two baths – have all the latest high-end appliances including Sub-Zero kitchen appliances, six-foot-high Pella wooden windows, wood floors, Jacuzzi tubs, marble floors and granite counter tops. The price range is from $499,000 to $1 million.
“It’s convenient to (walk) to Providence Place, to Trinity Rep, to PPAC” from the building, said Jim Hagan, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, when asked about the appeal of downtown living. “It’s a very walkable city and the infusion of more housing in all magnitudes will bring life and vitality back to the city.”
The Palmer Block building was built as a three-story structure in 1915 and four more floors were added in later years. In recent years, the Palmer building was occupied by Greyhound’s satellite office, some city offices, Pelham House club and restaurant and a coffee shop.
Each floor of The Cosmopolitan is divided into two condo units. The first floor will feature an elegant, restored entryway, and off to the left will be an upscale restaurant and to the right will be some office and other retail space, he said. The Cosmopolitan will have its own gated courtyard parking, located behind the building, and a concierge will greet residents and meet their tenant needs.
Workers have restored the exterior brickwork and will also restore some interior features including an old mail chute system (only for aesthetic purposes; the system will be sealed to meet fire codes), the brass entryway and its fan light and the staircases and railings.
Five years ago, Shore and Russell were looking for something in the city that didn’t exist.
Two years ago, the two businessmen – Shore in lighting fixtures manufacturing and Russell president of Rusco Steel – found the building and decided to make it like nothing Providence has ever seen.
“The location is really Main on Main,” Shore said. “We wanted to make it like
Park Place. We wanted it to be the highest level of luxury in the city, and
we wanted a building that reflects Providence’s past – when it used to be a
very affluent city.”
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