Sale of City Property Known As The Rochambeau Fire Station. 280 Rochambeau Avenue, Providence, RI Feasibility Study RWU 2018

Rochambeau Avenue Fire Station Adaptive Reuse
Feasibility Study
Prepared for:
Providence Redevelopment Agency
Providence, RI
Prepared by:
Roger Williams University
School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation
HP 525: Preservation Economics Course
Spring 2018

Contents
Introduction 1
Executive Summary 2
1.0 Objectives 3
2.0 Property History and Significance Analysis 4
2.1 Historical Background 4
2.2 Property Description and Character Defining Features 5
2.2.1 Exterior 5
2.2.2 Interior 9
3.0 Community and Political Factors 17
3.1 Neighborhood Profile 17
3.2 Rochambeau Fire Station Open House, September 2017 18
3.3. Political Factors 18
3.4 Analysis 19
4.0 Legal Limitations 20
4.1 Ownership & Deed Restrictions: 20
4.2 Land Use 20
4.2.1 Comprehensive Plan 20
4.2.2 Zoning 21
4.2.3 Building Codes 22
4.2.4 Historic District 23
5.0 Local and Regional Market Factors 24
5.1 Market Area Demographics 24
5.2 Business and Retail Analysis 26
5.3 Residential Real Estate 26
5.4 Commercial Real Estate 27
6.0 Target Market 29
7.0 Intervention Tools 30
8.0 Proposed Uses 31
8.1. Building Code Considerations for Proposed Uses 31
8.1.1 Americans with Disabilities Act 31
8.1.2 International Building/Fire Codes 32

8.2 Parking Considerations for Proposed Uses 32
9.0 Conceptual Design 33
9.1 Concept 1: Mixed-Use Multi-Family Residential and Office 33
9.2 Concept 2: Mixed-Use Multi-Family Residential and Community Use 34
10.0 Financial Synthesis 35
10.1 Concept 1: Mixed-Use Multi-Family Residential and Office 35
10.2 Concept 2: Mixed-Use Multi-Family Residential and Community Use 37
11.0 Conclusion 39
Sources Consulted 40

Introduction
This feasibility study for the reuse of the historic Rochambeau Fire Station at 280 Rochambeau
Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island was conducted by students in the 2018 Preservation
Economics course in the School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation at Roger
Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. The study took place in partnership with the
Providence Redevelopment Agency and was facilitated by the Roger Williams University
Community Partnership Center.
The purpose of this study is to identify and examine feasible and historically appropriate
rehabilitation and reuse scenarios for Rochambeau Fire Station. Erected in 1929, the
Rochambeau Fire Station is one of the finer examples of early-twentieth-century municipal
architecture in the city and is a contributing resource in the Elmgrove Gardens Historic District
The facility served the citizens of the surrounding neighborhoods for nearly 90 years. Following
a consolidation of fire safety services in 2016, the City of Providence closed the Rochambeau
Fire Station in January 2017. The Providence Redevelopment Agency is charged with the
deaccessioning the vacant fire station from city ownership.
Students in the Preservation Economics class conducted architectural investigations to
determine character-defining features of the fire station, examined property planning and use
constraint, studied local real estate and commercial market factors, selected feasible reuse
scenarios based on property and market research designed concept schemes for feasible reuse
scenarios, calculated cost estimates based on price per square foot for use schemes, assessed
potential financial intervention tools available for rehabilitation and reuse, and prepared a
financial synthesis for residential and mixed residential and office uses.
The feasibility study team included graduate students Marjorie Drew Matthew McCarty, Alan
Pool, and Emeline Young and undergraduate students Lydia Costello, Diana Figueroa, Rosa
Ramirez, and Gabrielle Riley. Students were supervised by Assistant Professor Elaine Stiles
and advised and assisted by City of Providence preservation planner Jason Martin and principal
planner David Everett, and deputy director and general counsel of the Providence
Redevelopment Agency, Samuel Budway.
1

Executive Summary
This study was conducted to assess the feasibility of reuse scenarios for the Rochambeau Fire
Station at 280 Rochambeau Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, a contributing resource in the
Elmgrove Gardens National Register Historic District. The study process identified and analyzed
potential uses that would preserve character-defining features of the historic building, contribute
to the community, and be financially feasible.
After analyzing the building, legal and planning limitations, community and political factors, and
local real estate and commercial market factors, the feasibility study team identified two
potentially feasible reuse scenarios:
Concept 1: Mixed-use multi-family residential and office
Concept 2: Mixed-use multi-family residential and community space
The team completed conceptual design schemes and financial synthesis for both uses and
determined that both were likely feasible. The costs for Concept 1 and Concept 2 were
comparable, however Concept 1, Mixed-Use Multi-Family Residential and Office, created a
significantly larger cash flow. Concept 2, Use Multi-Family Residential and Community Use,
however, more closely meets community objectives for the project. Furthermore, a nonprofit
community organization or developer would likely have access to incentives unavailable to a
for-profit developer which may improve the cost basis of the project.
One of the challenges with reusing Providence Rochambeau Fire Station is the lack of
preservation-related incentives available to the property. It does not fall within the areas of
intervention for the Providence Revolving Fund or qualify for low-interest financing from the
Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission's Historic Preservation Loan
Fund. Reuse and rehabilitation projects for the property would also be unlikely to meet the
substantial rehabilitation standards for the federal historic preservation tax credit program or the
Rebuild Rhode Island tax credit program. A project would therefore likely be dependent on
developer equity and public or market-rate financing and housing and business incentives
unrelated to historic preservation.
2

1.0 Objectives
The following objectives guided the student team's work in conducting this feasibility study:
Preserving the historic character and integrity of the fire station
Finding a use that contributed to and was compatible with the surrounding
neighborhoods
Finding a financially sustainable program of use
Some maintenance of public access or use
In September 2017, the City of Providence Planning Department held an open house meeting at
the fire station to solicit comment from the public on the future use of the building. While the
majority of respondents wanted the building to remain a fire station, the following uses were also
identified, in descending order of votes:
Community/Youth/Rec Center
Housing (one or two family)
Arts Space/Theater/Arts Education
Community Garden/Plant Agriculture/Farmers Market
Fire Museum
Roller Skating/Skate Park
Coffee Shop
Police Sub-station
Park/Playground
Small Business Incubator1
The team considered the focus among public comments on public use and housing in shaping
objectives for the feasibility analysis.
1 City of Providence, "Rochambeau Fire Station Open House,"
http://www.providenceri.gov/rochambeau-fire-station-open-house/.
3

2.0 Property History and Significance Analysis
2.1 Historical Background
Located at 280 Rochambeau Avenue, Rochambeau Fire Station is a two-story, Tudor Revival
style, brick building constructed in 1929. The building was originally constructed as a fire station
and continued in that use until January of 2017. The parcel associated with Rochambeau Fire
Station (Plat 93, Lot 166) was in the ownership of the Hazard Family from the late nineteenth
century and the Johnston Family in the early twentieth century before sale of the land to the city
in 1928.2 According to Sanborn map research, the fire station is the first building constructed on
the site.3 The Tudor Revival styling of Rochambeau Fire Station was intended blend the
non-residential building early-twentieth-century domestic architecture of the surrounding
neighborhood.
The establishment of Rochambeau Fire Station reflected the need for municipal buildings in the
growing East Side residential areas as they expanded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The East Side was originally a area of farmland and large family estates. Complicated
land holdings involving the Brown Morris Estate and the difficulty of developing on the naturally
wet land slowed development of the area until the early twentieth century. The area was platted
for single-family residential development in several stages between the 1887 and 1928 by
members of the Brown, Morris, and Dexter families. Transportation improvements during the
period made development of outlying residential additions to the city feasible. The rise of the
automobile, still a luxury at the time, made it possible for middle- and upper-class citizens to live
further from the central business district of the city and commute to work. The East Side
developed quickly in the early twentieth century as a district of middle and upper-middle class
residential enclaves, with some slowing down due in part to the onset of to the Great
Depression.4 Nearby, Hope Street became the primary commercial district for the adjacent
neighborhoods, with the Rochambeau Avenue fire station, former Hope Street Theater, and the
local library branch anchoring the district.5
In 2005, three of the Brown and Morris subdivision plats were listed on the National Register of
Historic Places as the Elmgrove Gardens Historic District. The district is significant for its
association with early streetcar and automobile-driven decentralization of the city and for its
collection of distinctive examples of early twentieth-century architectural styles, including Tudor
Revival.6
2 City of Providence Plat Card for Plat 93, Lot 166. City of Providence Archives.
3 Sanborn Map Company. Providence. Volume 2, Sheet 90, 1921.
4 Cavanaugh, Kathryn and Mary Kate Harrington, National Register Registration Form for Elmgrove Gardens Historic
District, Providence, Rhode Island. September 2003, 46, 55-57; Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage
Commission, Historic and Architectural Resources of the East Side of Providence: A Preliminary Report, Providence:
Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, 1989, 26.
www.preservation.ri.gov/survey/publications.php.
5 Summit Neighborhood Association, "The Neighborhood," http://www.sna.providence.ri.us/the-neighborhood/.
6 Cavanaugh and Harrington, National Register, 46.
4

Rochambeau Fire Station is the only non-residential contributing building in the district. It is
significant for its association with the expansion of city services to the growing residential
additions of the East Side of Providence and as a distinctive example of Tudor Revival design.
The fire station is one of seven Tudor Revival-style buildings in the Elmgrove Gardens Historic
District.
2.2 Property Description and Character Defining Features
2.2.1 Exterior
Rochambeau Fire Station is situated on the northwest corner of Rochambeau Avenue and
Mutual Place on an approximately one-quarter-acre lot (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Location Map. Source: Google.
The two-and-a-half-story, cross-gable, reinforced concrete building is clad in red brick. The
building rests on a concrete foundation and the roof is sheathed in slate. The main block of the
building is oriented with the gable end toward Rochambeau Avenue, and features two
prominent, telescoped, front-facing gables (Figure 2). The cross-gable extends from the west
elevation of the main block, and a major gable dormer projects from the east roof slope. Gable
dormers with clapboard siding are set on the ends of each roof slope of the main block and a
skylight on the cross-gable ridge line lights an interior stairwell. A brick interior chimney is set on
the west side of the main block at near the ridge line (Figure 3).
5

Figure 2. Main (south) elevation of fire house from Rochambeau Avenue.
Figure 3. Main (south) and west elevations showing cross gable form.
The main elevation features an engine bay entrance at the east end of the elevation. The
opening has a low pointed arch opening and modern overhead door. A wood sign with raised
letters above the entrance reads "Engine Co. 4." The primary pedestrian entrance is set
off-center on the main (south) elevation of the cross-gable block (Figure 4). It also features a
low, pointed arch opening and has a historic, lit wooden plank door with decorative strap hinges.
Secondary entrances to the building are situated on the west gable end of the cross-gable, and
on the east end of the rear (north) elevation, providing egress from the engine bay. The
6

secondary entrance to the cross gable also has a low pointed-arch opening and lit, wooden
plank door with strap hinges (Figure 5).
Figure 3. Mutual Place (west) elevation showing secondary entrance.
7