Townhouses planned at Bristol’s historic Belvedere

As a requirement for securing the R.I. Coastal Resource Management Council’s approval for new construction of a residential building at the Belvedere at Bristol site, developer James W. Roiter’s team had to wait for researchers to do what they thought would be a small archeological dig on the property.
“Well, that sample dig turned up the presence of a distillery – a rum distillery that was deemed significant” because a similar one had never been found in Rhode Island, said Roiter, owner of 423 Hope Street Redevelopment. So last winter, a more extensive dig was undertaken, stalling construction.
“That dig uncovered a vast deal of history that historians have been able to now document how rum was made back somewhere in the 1680s to early 1700s,” he said, “and it’s also helping them to determine when Rhode Island abandoned the slave trade.”
Though delayed, groundbreaking for the planned residential building, dubbed the Thames, is now set for fall 2008. It is the only new facility that will be constructed at The Belvedere at Bristol, an historic restoration project for which a first-phase grand opening was held on May 15 (READ MORE).
The $20 million project takes up much of a block between Thames and Hope Streets, “but it’s probably only about an acre of land,” Roiter said before the recent ceremony. It straddles Bristol’s Downtown Historic District and the Waterfront Historic District, “so it really sits smack in what’s arguably the most historic part of Bristol.”
The development’s centerpiece is a 107-year-old former hotel, originally built by John Brown Herreshoff of the yacht-making Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. That building has been dubbed the Hope building. Also on the block are the State and John buildings, each with two apartments, water views and private gardens.
Because the Belvedere had been approved as a historic renovation under the state’s Historic Preservation Investment Tax Credit program, the renovation was to receive a 27.75-percent tax credit. But that program was trimmed back by the R.I. General Assembly in April to 22 percent. The first phase of the Belvedere is the first project to be completed since those changes were made, Roiter said.
“It’s too bad, because this is a building that had been sitting vacant and open to the elements for about 10 years” and the tax-credit program could help other developers renovate similarly abandoned properties, he said.
Because the project received federal and state tax credits, the three first-phase properties must operate as income-producing properties for at least five years. The two penthouses and 12 apartments in the Hope building have been completed and will rent for an average rate of $2,500 per month. The apartments will range from 1,491 to 2,500 square feet and are being marketed for their harbor views and history: reportedly, J.P. Morgan and Harold Vanderbilt both were guests at the former hotel.
The new building, the Thames, is the project’s second and final phase. It will have 10 townhouses – some with private rooftop decks – and more than 7,000 square feet of retail storefronts.
The building, designed by Newport Collaborative Architects, “is going to recapture the gambrel-roof style” and look of the building that had been on the spot during the early 1900s, according to Roiter. That building was destroyed during the Hurricane of 1938, he said.
Pricing for the Belvedere at Thames hasn’t been finalized, but the townhouses will be for sale, Roiter said. “It’s going to be priced to appeal to empty nesters, those that want to move to the area, in what I would consider the mid-level price range,” he said. “They’ll be very affordable against similar properties.”
Construction is tentatively scheduled for completion in the summer of 2009. Newport Collaborative Architects Inc. and Providence-based Nappa Building Corp. comprise the development team. •