PAWTUCKET — A Providence real estate developer has won the right to redevelop the Old Colony Bank building, a city-owned ruin that has so far defied attempts at rehabilitation.

Lawrence J. Platt said he hopes to turn the distinctive flatiron-shaped building at 347 Main St. into offices for designers and architects.

Platt, principal owner of the Platt Realty Group, said the three-story brick building is admirably suited for design offices, what with its high ceilings and copious windows that let in plenty of light.

“Our intention is to completely gut the building and bring it up to current standards and codes,” Platt said over the telephone yesterday.

“At the same time, we’re investigating the possibility of creating a ‘green building’ ” — one that would meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s criteria for energy-efficient, environment-friendly design.

The Old Colony Bank building is being offered for $75,000 by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, which bought it to pave the way for the redevelopment of the neighboring Parkin Yarn building, an abandoned textile mill.

The Parkin Yarn building was successfully transformed into condominiums. But the Old Colony Bank building remains vacant. A proposal by Federal Hill chef Walter Potenza to turn the former bank into a café and cooking school was dropped when private financing turned out to be available only on onerous terms.

Platt’s plan to transform the building into offices for designers and architects was among five proposals submitted to the redevelopment agency in March.

Three of the other proposals called for turning the building into rental apartments or condominiums. The fourth, submitted by a Lincoln-based real estate company, sought a two-year option to buy the building but didn’t spell out the eventual use.

Assistant redevelopment director Barney S. Heath said Platt was designated the “preferred developer” because he appeared to have the financial capability to do the project and already had an architect lined up.

But the architect, Dana Newbrook of ai design ltd., said he doesn’t have a contract with Platt yet, although he expects one eventually. And Platt said he is still reviewing the redevelopment agency’s property disposition agreement and working out the financial details.

Platt declined to go into detail about the financing, but said that state and federal historic tax credits will be key to raising the money to rehab the former bank building.

For that reason, Platt said, he plans to pursue the application that Potenza submitted to have the building listed on the National Register of Historic Properties. The state Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission agreed to nominate the building for inclusion on the Historic Register before Potenza dropped out of the project last year.

The 16,500-square-foot Old Colony Bank building was built in 1914 to house the E. Gately & Co. clothing store. Platt said the clothing store was at street level. Professional offices were on the upper floors.

In the 1920s, Matthew J. Gallagher, the real estate developer who built the Oak Hill Platt, bought 347 Main St. and renamed it the M.J. Gallagher building. In 1935, the building was acquired by Old Colony Cooperative Bank.

It operated as a bank until the early 1990s, according to Michael D. Cassidy, director of the Department of Planning and Redevelopment, when Citizens Bank bought out Old Colony and closed the branch at 347 Main St.

Downtown developer Louis C. Yip subsequently bought the former bank building, using the property’s parking lot to provide some of the parking needed to fulfill the terms of the 10-year Registry of Motor Vehicles lease that he had just won from the state.

In 2004, the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency bought the former bank, along with its parking lot, from Yip, paying $282,000 for the property and using part of the lot to provide parking for Parkin Yarn.

jcastell@projo.com