By
Robert O’Malley
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The AHP-funded AS220 arts center and housing
initiative in downtown Providence.
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When two shopping malls opened in the Providence suburbs in the
late 1960s, it signaled the end of an era for downtown Providence.
A longtime magnet for shoppers from across the region, downtown Providence slipped
into decline in the 1970s and was all but abandoned by retailers in the 1990s.
Department stores and other retail outlets shut their doors, leaving behind deserted
streets and rows of empty 19th century buildings.
Downtown Providence suffered another setback when the landmark Biltmore Hotel
at the center of the city also closed. Concerned with the escalating decline
of the city center,
a group of local stakeholders came together to form the Providence Foundation,
an organization positioned to target investment opportunities to help bring back
the city.
In the years that followed, downtown Providence went through a dramatic redesign:
railroad tracks were moved, a new railroad station was constructed, the once-polluted
Providence River was relocated and uncovered, and Waterplace Park and the river
walkway system linked to it were created. In 1999, the huge Providence Place
mall was built
at the edge of downtown to attract regional shoppers, just as the downtown retail
district had done a quarter century before.
In recent years, the last phase of this ongoing transformation has been the renovation
of downtown Providence’s attractive 19th century commercial buildings to
create a mix of new housing and retail space.
On a recent January morning, Daniel A. Baudouin, executive director of the Providence
Foundation, stood on Westminster Street in the heart of the original downtown
commercial district and talked about the transformation. “Fifteen years
ago most of these buildings were empty,” says Mr. Baudouin. “In 1991
there was 800,000 square feet of vacant space and lots of buildings had been
torn down and turned into parking lots. We were losing our historic core. The
community got together and formulated a plan to reuse these wonderful old historic
buildings.”
In 1992, the Providence Foundation invited nationally known urbanist Andres Duany
to host a series of charettes, or planning sessions, to determine what could
be done to revive the downtown district. The group concluded that the area could
be used for arts and entertainment, university facilities, residences, specialty
retail, and offices.
To make this happen, however, the city needed to attract individuals and organizations
to invest in the district, says Mr. Baudouin, who notes that local universities
and the arts organization AS220 were the first organizations to venture into
the area. Another major investor was Arnold “Buff” Chase, owner of
Cornish Associates, who began converting retail buildings such as the Peerless
building into market-rate rental loft apartments.
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| Former
retail buildings in downtown Providence have been transformed
into a mix of housing and commercial space. |
Major investors in the downtown district during its darkest hour
were Johnson and Wales University, which built its new campus on
the former site of the city’s
largest department store, and the University of Rhode Island, which relocated
its city campus to the former Shepard’s Department Store
building at the center of the retail district. In recent years,
Rhode Island School of Design has also invested in the area, opening
a dormitory and other facilities in downtown buildings.
Mr. Baudouin says the revival of the former retail district continues
to pick up speed. Buildings have been renovated
and new businesses and residences have opened. The Peerless complex — once
the site of a women’s clothing store — has 100 units of market-rate
housing on the upper floors and 35,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor.
Slowly, the kind of specialized businesses found on Boston’s Newbury Street
are opening on Westminster Street, including a bookstore, a café,
a boutique, and a home-furnishings shop.
A key player in the downtown revival has been AS220. In 1993, the
arts organization acquired a mostly vacant and blighted downtown
building and converted it into an arts center and 11 single-room
residential studios affordable to very low- and low-income artists.
The recipient of a $65,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank
of Boston’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP), the Empire
Street initiative also included a theater and artist work studios.
“The AS220 complex has really revitalized the whole Empire Street neighborhood,” says
Lucie Searle, AS220’s development manager. “Our performance center
is open seven days a week. We’re not just developing affordable
spaces for artists but have become a destination that makes downtown
attractive for living and working.”
In 2005, the organization received a second AHP award to help finance the acquisition
and rehabilitation of the historic Dreyfus Hotel on Washington Street to create
additional affordable live-work space for artists in the downtown district (see
story in this issue).
“AS220 was one of the first developers
to take an old downtown building and rehab it,” says Mr. Baudouin. “We
are very excited that they have decided to do another project.
We do have some affordable housing downtown, but most of it is
market-rate housing, which is needed to make the rehabilitation
work.
“We’re creating a mixed-use community,” he continues, “and
it’s very important for the arts to be a part of that. Art
is part of the Providence mindset and culture. We appreciate the
Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s support for the projects
because
it brings affordable housing for artists into the district. We
want to make sure artists aren’t priced out of downtown because
they are still a very important part of what we are creating here.”T |
