PROVIDENCE – The former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and Bell Tower Place, apartment buildings developed during recent years in the Federal Hill area of Providence, were recently sold for a total of $11.7 million, according to public records.
The Omni Group sold the newly developed Bell Tower Place properties at 110 Dean St. and 128 Dean St. to Sempre Avanti Realty Corp. for $2.75 million each, according to the warranty deeds documenting the transactions. The two three-story buildings each contain 12 apartment units, with a mix of studio and one-bedroom units. Monthly rent for a one-bedroom ranges from $1,595 to $1,975, according to the company’s website.
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The redeveloped mixed-use church building was sold by The Omni Group to Sempre Avanti Realty for $6.17 million, according to the warranty deed for this transaction. According to the Omni Group website, the former church was transformed into 25 apartments, with a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
Sempre Avanti Realty, a real estate company established in 2009 in the Bronx section of New York City, purchased the properties from real estate holding companies tied to The Omni Group, a Providence-based real estate investment and development company, according to warranty deeds documenting the sales. Those holding companies are named Omni 18S LLC, Omni 110D LLC and Omni 128D LLC, according to the warranty deeds.
The Omni Group first bought the two Dean Street properties for a total of $200,000 in 2019 before developing the apartment buildings, according to city records. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and its Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church sold the properties to The Omni Group in January 2019, with 110 Dean St. selling for $115,000 and 128 Dean St. selling for $85,000, according to quitclaim deeds documenting the transactions.
The church building at 18 Spruce St. was sold by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to The Omni Group in January 2019 for $300,000, according to the quitclaim deed for this transaction.
In addition to the property sale, deed restrictions were put in place to prevent future use of the site that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, including non-Catholic religious activities, abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, pornography, tattoo creation, body piercing, paranormal gatherings, tavern operations and gambling, among other activities.
The church was constructed in 1925 and closed in 2015. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence said that it decided to close and sell the church due to structural problems with the building.
The church was designed by John F. O’Malley of O’Malley & Fitzsimmons, according to the Providence Preservation Society in its description of the property, which has listed the Spruce Street building on its list of the city’s most endangered historic buildings.
The diocese announced in June 2016 that the congregation that belonged to the church was merging with the Church of the Holy Ghost on the western end of Atwells Avenue.
The mixed-use former church building at 18 Spruce St. was most recently valued by Providence assessors in fiscal year 2023 to be worth a total of $2.6 million, according to the city’s online property tax evaluation database. The 110 Dean St. property was assessed by the city to be worth $1.55 million, and the 128 Dean St. property was assessed to be worth $1.43 million, according to the database.
Marc Larocque is a PBN contributing writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockObama.
