A tower of neglect
The condition of the former Hospital Trust bank building tells a familiar story of urban decay, but city officials say it may still be saved
The old Rhode Island Hospital Trust bank and office building is likely one of the most ornate and beautifully designed commercial properties in the central Main Street area but that’s not how it is appearing these days.
The long vacant 36,000square-foot, six-story building with a soaring, columned main floor banking lobby, is showing both exterior and interior deterioration from its lack of occupancy and has city planning officials hoping a new owner can be found to restore its past standing as a Main Street mainstay.
The potential of the old bank as a new multipurpose property combining the
allowed commercial, office, or residential uses under Main Street’s zoning can still be seen even through its lack of needed maintenance, according to N. David Bouley, director of Planning and Development and Rui Almeida, city planner. 162 Main Street was last used as a home for the Woonsocket Registry of Motor Vehicles office and an adult learning program, and as been vacant for at least five years if not longer.
Although crumbling mortar can been found on the lower brick corners of the building near the city’s Main Street parking lot opposite City Hall, Almeida said the deterioration is superficial, and with work the bank building could be made to glow with potential once again. There is also an increasing amount of graffiti on the exterior of the building that will need to be cleaned up as part of any renovation plan.
But it is the bones of the structure – completed as a city financial palace in 1930 – that still makes it a property with potential, according to Almeida.
“This was a grand building and this was built when money was celebrated as a power to do things,” Almeida said.
The building’s Boston architect, Thomas M. James & Co., based the National Register of Historic Places listed structure on Rhode Island Hospital Trust’s main bank building in Providence. The classical revival-themed building is a steel-framed brick and concrete structure that features a glazed arcade banking space on the first floor, marked by tall Corinthian pillars rising to the natural lighting skylights. The foundation on Main Street is of polished granite, and stonework decorative pieces sit atop the arch-topped tall windows overlooking the wide sidewalk.
The building’s owner, Duarte Carreiro, recently listed the property for sale with Marie E. Rico of Hewitt, Newton Associates at an asking price of $490,900.
Although any redevelopment plan will end up costing a new owner much more than the asking price, both Bouley and Almeida said the city does have programs within the Main Street Overlay District, put in place to help spur redevelopment of Main Street’s once prime but now neglected commercial properties.
The district allows for a relaxing of some property use requirements, such as relief from residential development standards for two parking spaces per housing unit. The district would allow a residential use offering a single parking space per unit, as opposed to the requirement for a proposal outside the district.
A property developer could also obtain relief from any tax increase on their renovated property for the two years following completion of the work and then a sliding scale of implementation of new tax requirements over a 12-year period, he noted. The owner would pay 11 percent of the new taxes in the third year of the tax plan and 22 percent in the fourth year and so on through the 12-year schedule, Bouley noted.
The first step in getting to a redevelopment plan is finding someone to carry it out, and Bouley and Almeida said the Rhode Island Hospital Trust property is being promoted to potential outside investors.
The building is just one of several potential redevelopment properties in the Main Street area, such as the historic Longley Building opposite the Woonsocket train depot, the Commercial Block, now undergoing renovation, and the Heritage Coffee Shoppe, which has a currently vacant commercial space below its upstairs occupied apartments.
As is the case with interest in the Longley Building, plans for a new commuter rail service out of the Woonsocket depot linking Worcester and Providence with daily runs could be a strong incentive to Main Street revival if those plans do move forward.
The Boston Surface Railway Co. is already located in the Depot and working on plans to make its proposed service active, according to Bouley and Almeida.
With its development incentives under the Main Street Overlay District, Bouley said the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Building has increased potential for providing Main Street with new apartments, serving young professionals or artists look- ing to have access to larger urban areas through the new train service.
“It would be perfect for one-bedroom, efficiency apartments,” he said. And there could be other uses in the building, such as a restaurant or an artists and retail arcade that would make it a multipurpose development on Main Street, according to the planners.
The building was one of the stops on Grow Smart’s recent tour of Main Street and Almeida said the participants did get a look inside to better gauge its potential.
“So there is a new buzz for Main Street and it is attracting business and investors and it is becoming a big deal,” Almeida said while noting his office hasn’t stopped working on Main Street redevelopment for nine months now.
And in regards to what the future may hold for the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Building? Almeida said he is sure someone will come along with a plan to make it a new Main Street highlight. “Plenty of people are looking at it, and this is going to happen one day, I know it,” he said.