RI Housing approves $25 million for Superman Building, other affordable housing projects

Wheeler Cowperthwaite, The Providence Journal
·2 min read

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Housing commissioners on Thursday approved $24.75 million in financing to rehabilitate or create 700 affordable-housing units across the state.

The commissioners also approved $1 million to convert the former bank atrium in the Industrial Trust Tower, also known as the Superman Building, into a community space.

In all, the estimated cost to convert the former office building into apartments and commercial space is $223 million.

The commissioners approved $3 million to turn 206 Broad St. in Providence, across from the Classical High School football field, into a mixed-use building with 26 affordable apartments and a commercial space on the first floor for support service providers, to be called Copley Chambers I. The building is now in a "blighted" condition.

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It is on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the first apartment buildings built in Providence. The total proposed cost is $6.4 million, or $255,577 per unit. Rents would vary between $454 to $1,630, depending on the income threshold and other subsidies.

The state commissioners also approved a loan for $22.64 million for the rehabilitation of a 126-unit building for seniors and those with disabilities, Bear Hill in Cumberland.

In Tiverton, the Armory Revival Company will get a $4.38 million loan to build housing on a vacant lot next to Bourne Mill, which has already been converted into housing. Of the 59 new units, 47 will be income-restricted.

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A three-mill complex in Woonsocket, Millrace, will be turned into 70 units of affordable housing, after receiving $3.2 million in funding.

A pot of $14.75 million will be split between 13 projects, out of money received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, and branded RI Rebounds.

A street view of the 176-unit apartment complex planned by Crossroads Rhode Island at Broad and West Franklin streets.
A street view of the 176-unit apartment complex planned by Crossroads Rhode Island at Broad and West Franklin streets.

Those projects include a 54-unit development in Middletown, called West House II, for people 55 and older for $1 million; $2.5 million for the replacement of The Tower at Broad and West Franklin streets in Providence; a 63-unit complex in East Greenwich called Frenchtown for $1.76 million; and 72 units in Lincoln, 57 of which will be affordable housing, at Villages at Manville for $306,000.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Superman Building, affordable housing projects receive funding from RI