For more than a century, 203 Westminster St. has stood like a baroque sentinel in downtown Providence – a grand Beaux-Arts building that once echoed with the clatter of printing presses.
Designed in 1906 by Boston firm Peabody & Stearns, the former Providence Journal headquarters has weathered retail churn and decades of downtown evolution, all while remaining as one of the city’s most iconic architectural landmarks.
The newspaper company relocated to Fountain Street in 1934. Its old headquarters was used as a retail space for years but has been mostly vacant for more than a decade. The interior has deteriorated, and so has the façade at Westminster and Eddy streets.
“That’s a really, really special building here in the city,” said Providence Preservation Society Executive Director Marisa Angell Brown. “It stands out. There aren’t that many buildings downtown with such elegant and ornate French architecture. Yet it’s been in a state of mystery, a state of flux for so long.”
That state of flux may be coming to an end.
After years of delays, the owner of the building is getting closer to piecing together the financing to redevelop the structure and the neighboring Kresge Building into 115 income-restricted apartments – a $53 million project that may get underway soon.
In April, the R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp. – a quasi-public agency otherwise known as R.I. Housing – gave preliminary approval to issue up to $31.4 million in tax-exempt “conduit” bonds that will be used to provide a mortgage that will be paid back by the developer, Standard Communities.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is slated to purchase the 40-year bonds in a private placement, according to R.I. Housing documents.
[caption id="attachment_499237" align="alignright" width="341"]
PLAYING ITS PART: The Kresge Building abutting the old Providence Journal Building on Westminster Street in Providence will be converted to apartments as part of the ProJo project.
PBN PHOTO/WILLIAM HAMILTON[/caption]
Also assisting the project: the state awarded the project $6.8 million in low-income housing tax credits in May, and the R.I. Commerce Corp. approved $3.2 million in tax incentives to building owner Westminster Partners LLC in May 2023, just a few months after the Providence City Council authorized a 20-year tax stabilization agreement that is projected to save Westminster Partners $4.2 million.
The project has been a long time in the making.
Westminster Partners is a subsidiary of Washington, D.C.-based Abdo Development LLC, which purchased the Providence Journal and Kresge buildings in 2018. CEO and President James Abdo initially proposed plans for a boutique hotel.
Those plans evolved into an apartment project due to market challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2022, plans for the “Hive Life” development were unveiled, featuring apartments, 29,000 square feet of retail space and a “barcade” – a mix of bar and arcade – in the basement and another bar on the roof.
“There are just too many challenges in the marketplace for financing hotels,” Abdo said in 2022. “The headwinds are just too hard to make that happen right now.”
Indeed, R.I. Housing noted in its documents regarding the bond issuance that Abdo had been seeking market-rate housing at 203 Westminster St. but lost some of his investors. Now Standard Communities, a California developer of affordable housing, is under contract to buy the property from Westminster Partners. The project has been dubbed ProJo Apartments.
It’s unclear if the plans still contain features such as retail space and lounges. Abdo did not respond to a request for comment.
The timeline for the project also hasn’t been publicly revealed, but those involved appear to be ready to move quickly once financing is finalized.
R.I. Housing documents note that the development “is shovel-ready, with building permits in hand.” And the term of the pending construction loan is 2½ years, with two optional six-month extensions. “Plans and specifications are nearly 100% complete, and the interior has been gutted,” R.I. Housing said in its documents.
The project calls for all 115 units to serve households that earn 80% or lower of the area median income, with 25 units restricted to residents at or below 30%.
The project should be a catalyst for commercial revitalization in downtown Providence, attracting residents, businesses and visitors alike, Brown said. The apartment units will attract new downtown residents, who in turn will support local businesses.
It’s also expected to expand the city’s tax base. The ProJo Apartments redevelopment may raise the property’s assessed value from $3.9 million in 2024 to $20.9 million by 2041, increasing annual tax revenue from $140,000 to about $739,000, according to city estimates.
The redevelopment also helps to fill a vacant landmark, reviving downtown’s urban energy while maintaining its turn-of-the-20th-century charm, Brown says. And the very nature of the project is part of a larger effort to redevelop older real estate throughout the city.
On the West End, a 19th-century structure at 1107 Westminster St. is being redeveloped into mixed-use housing and retail. Meanwhile, the Case-Mead Building on Dorrance Street has been converted into microlofts, aided by $1.25 million in state historic tax credits.
The similarly long-empty Industrial Trust Co. Building – the “Superman” building, the city’s tallest and most iconic tower – is undergoing a $223 million transformation into 285 apartments with ground-floor commercial space.
Nearby, the historic Union Station concourse has already been redeveloped, opening in March as Track 15, a food hall serving commuters and downtown visitors.
“It’s overtaking new construction, readapting older buildings,” Brown said. “And like the ProJo Building, it doesn’t have to be all residential; there can be a commercial element to it. I think it is, and should be, the future of urban development.”
