Real estate agent Kira Greene is no stranger to selling high-end homes, but one of her latest listings in Pawtucket took things to a different level.
The flooring? Marble. The number of bedrooms? Eight. Livable space? 10,450 square feet.
Certainly, all the makings of a mansion. Except it wasn’t a mansion at all. Greene’s listing was a bank, complete with a working elevator and a massive vault with a thick, heavy door that even the best robbers wouldn’t be able to crack.
“What could be more luxury than owning a bank?” quipped Greene, the founding agent of Compass Real Estate’s Providence office.
The three-story former bank, constructed in 1901 on Main Street in downtown Pawtucket, is an example of what real estate experts foresee as a growing trend given the low inventory and the state’s limited developable land – reusing commercial, industrial
and educational structures and even former houses of worship for homes.
A recent report by listing service RentCafe found that adaptive reuse conversions have spiked 25% nationwide since 2019.
And with societal changes come new opportunities. Greene says conversions of old churches, schoolhouses, mills and even banks offer an alternative to the traditional home, what she called “an investor sweet spot.”
“At a time where [commercial] usage is down and residential demand is very high … looking at commercial spaces with an eye for residential or mixed uses is [becoming more] worthwhile,” she said. “This could spur more people in that direction.”
Michael Russo, managing broker at Rhode Island Real Estate Services, recently listed a property in Warwick that includes a former church and a school. He agrees the number of adaptive reuse properties will accelerate in the coming years.
There are currently only 750 single-family homes for sale in the entire state.
“There should be triple that number. So people are now looking at any opportunities. There is value to keeping a historical property intact,” he said. “There is a demand for preservation. But it takes a unique buyer. It’s not likely to be your average Joe.”
With inventory at record lows, public officials may need to rethink how current zoning regulations are set, Russo says.
“A lot of these types of properties are not going to come back to what they were,” he said. “We need local cities and towns to get with the age.”
Buyers of unique properties, especially those requiring renovations and residential upgrades, turn to companies such as Newport Collaborative Architects Inc., a firm that has completed numerous conversions in recent years.
“There is a collapse in the commercial rental market. These structures are empty,” said J. Michael Abbott, Newport Collaborative principal and former president of the American Institute of Architects Rhode Island Inc. “These properties should be preserved. Otherwise, they would just be demolished and turned into another drugstore on the corner.”
John Grosvenor, another Newport Collaborative principal, says preservation tax incentives exist to help defray the costs of renovation. He has completed over 200 such residential projects, the latest being the conversion of a historical mill in New Bedford to condominiums.
The process can be time-consuming. But the creative collaborations between designer and owner make for interesting discoveries, what Abbott called “structural surprises.”
“It’s a challenge to see how you can keep the building without taking the flavor out of it,” he said. “You start ripping into it and what you thought was being held up by a wall over here was really a beam over there.”
Besides historical properties, the architects at NCA said that shifts in technology and consumer demand will bring even more adaptive reuse opportunities. An example of this is the shopping mall boom that began in the 1950s that has since gone bust.
These more modern buildings create a different set of challenges. Many weren’t built with the expectation they would still be standing centuries later.
“It’s like planned obsolescence,” Grosvenor said.
Meanwhile, for Realtors such as Greene, obsolescence spells opportunity.
The former bank – once home to Providence County Savings Bank – was “cross listed” for $749,000 as a property that could be used for commercial or residential space.
The property, owned by a mixed-media artist, hit the market last month and is already under contract.
“This property stood out to me immediately as needing a unique approach to deliver a multi-channel buyer reach,” Greene said.
That unique approach included partnering with Jonathan Kaufman, a commercial real estate specialist at Compass Providence. The building, although set in a commercial zone, was eligible for a residential variance because the address is part of Pawtucket’s redevelopment zone. “This blend of skills provided the best strategy and opportunity for our clients,” Greene said.
For the luxury market, owning a more-than-century-old bank would seem to qualify. But putting a price tag on a building’s “uniqueness” can be difficult.
“When you are buying something that has historical value, what is the intrinsic value of that?” Greene said. “How does that translate?”
Greene says the building generated interest immediately, mostly from out-of-state buyers. She held 45 showings in less than a week.
“I knew it would be [a] hit with people,” she said.
