Greater City Providence

Reported demolition happening now on Federal Hill

ArtInRuins reports via Facebook:

Could be the first “What Jeer” of 2014. ArtInRuins says the owner is building a hotel on the site, I’ll believe it when I see it.

[box style=”alert”]Photos from Tuesday, January 7, 2014[/alert]

2014-0107-adie-house001

2014-0107-adie-house002

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

11 comments

  • What is the physical condition of this house?
    From what I was told from several viable sources, was that this house was part of a grouping of three others in Federal Hill that became “available” when their common owner had died.
    The family wanted to unload these properties and they did.
    One being the Low House on the corner of Broadway and Depasquale, purchased and recently restored by Armory Revival Co. owner BJ Dupre.
    The other house being the J.B. Barnaby House “Barnaby’s Castle” on Broadway. This house was purchased by family friend Richard Sciolto, who recently finished restoration of his mansard on the corner of Broadway and Almy Street.

    Has the PPS been informed?
    What about the Revolving Fund? Are the historic district overlay zones including this parcel?

  • PPS is aware of what is happening, I have not had time to look into the legalities and regulations, but I would think if there had been something to do to stop/stall it, PPS would have acted. This building has been on their 10 Most Endangered list in past years.

  • That demolition looks pretty controlled. Are they dismantling the house for rebuilding elsewhere?

  • Seeing this I have a revised proposal for city property taxation.

    1) If you purchase property and tear it down you have six months to present development plans and financial agreements for the new development.
    2) If no plans within six months and the surface is used as a parking lot, tax rate per thousand of valuation increases by a factor of 10. So let’s say it was $35 per thousand with the house, it would be $350 per thousand for a parking lot.

    That would persuade people not to tear down properties to make parking lots.

  • Jason Martin at the City knows about it. It is legal as far as I can tell. Took a walk by this morning and it looks like there is fire damage on the third floor, but if there is demolition going on, it is controlled. Possibly they are taking whatever details are valuable out of the house before clearing the parcel.

  • PPS is not doing a very good job with their endangered building list. It is like being on the cover of Sports Illustrative early in the season if you’re a baseball player. Pretty much kills your career.

  • Does anyone have any information on what the proposed hotel will look like and the construction timeline yet?

  • Steve – Here is the most likely timeline for the “proposed Hotel Construction” – its going to be a “temporary” surface parking lot for the next 10 years.

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