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SWAP opens first mixed-use project, with apartments and commercial condos

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008

Journal staff report

Jeanne Cola of North Kingstown tours one of the residential apartments yesterday at SouthSide Gateway, at 500 Broad St. in Providence.


The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — The nonprofit organization Stop Wasting Abandoned Property, or SWAP, known for providing affordable housing in South Providence, entered a new phase of its development yesterday with the opening of a $10.2-million mixed-use commercial and rental property.

Called SouthSide Gateway, the three-story building at 500 Broad St. has 35 apartments on the upper floors and 10 retail or office condominiums on the ground level. The building, on the former site of Tire King, was designed in the New England style that fits the surrounding neighborhood by local architect Robert Billings.

The project was financed in part by the City of Providence, and support also came from Rhode Island Housing, the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission, the National Equity Fund, the Local Initiative Support Corporation and Bank of America, which provided $7,745,000 in construction financing.

Organizers of SWAP held an opening celebration with tours of the building and a series of speeches by public officials. In the past 12 years, SWAP has bought, renovated or rebuilt about 150 abandoned, burned-out or derelict houses in the surrounding streets, and sold them to new owners, but it also maintains a number of rental properties in the neighborhood.

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