Boston Investor Acquires Gateway Center in Downtown Providence for $13.2M

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

In a $13.2 million deal, Albany Road Real Estate Partners of Boston has purchased the four-story, 117,000-square-foot Gateway Center in Downtown Providence. According to the Providence Journal,the transaction closed on May 23. Bank Rhode Island financed the acquisition with a $10-million, 10-year loan.

Located at 15 Park Row West, the building is 86 percent leased, Albany Road partner Christopher J. Knisely told the newspaper. TIAA-CREF, Admirals Bank, software firm Andera, Precision Design, and the Big East athletic conference are among the property’s tenants.

The facility was developed by Gateway Eight in 1989. Construction was financed through $23 million in state bonds, which the state retirement system acquired. In 2004, the building’s developer went bankrupt and the pension fund took control of the property.

In 2006, a Connecticut developer acquired the building. Most recently, in 2009, U.S. Bank purchased the property at a foreclosure auction for $13 million.

Earlier this year, Albany Road acquired a four-story office building in Warwick’s MetroCenter office park for $13.6 million.

In regional news, the Providence Business News reports that Johnson & Wales University has sold its 86-room inn in Seekonk, Mass. for $1.65 million. The Sarchi Group acquired the property, which it has renamed the Hilltop Hotel & Conference Center.

“As the university’s first hotel internship property, the inn, purchased in the early 1980s, has played a significant role in JWU’s history and has been an important venue to the local community,” Michael Downing, the university’s vice president of auxiliary services, said in a statement.

As a condition of the sale, the Sarchi Group will honor all contracts, including pricing, for events scheduled at the Inn. The company owns and manages retail, mixed-use and apartment buildings as well as motels and hotels in Massachusetts and Connecticut.