PROVIDENCE — Jason E. Kelly had two goals: to take part in the Providence renaissance by bringing his venerable Rhode Island business back into the city. And to provide a safe and healthy workplace for his employees.

But even Kelly never expected those goals would lead him to renovate a historic building, create one of Rhode Island’s “greenest” office buildings, and drill the first geothermal wells in downtown Providence to both heat and cool his building.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” jokes the executive vice president of Moran Shipping Agencies Inc. as he provides a tour of the former Rhode Island Medical Society building, a classic brick structure overshadowed by the historic State House and Renaissance Providence Hotel and the relatively new Providence Place mall.

The interior spaces are cluttered with exposed wiring and walls and the roughed-in structure for a new elevator. But you can already see the potential.

If the marble staircases, individualized heating zones and nontoxic paints and rugs aren’t enough to make his employees happy, they will also have the spectacular views through enormous windows of the State House, and amenities just a short walk away such as the Providence train station and the mall.

Moran provides shipping agents in ports around the country. The agents handle some 10,000 visits by ships annually, and provide services ranging from customs and passports to stevedores and communications. The company was founded in Providence 70 years ago. About 30 years ago, like so many other businesses, it moved out to the suburbs — Warwick.

When the building at 106 Francis St. in Providence opens early next year, it will be the hub for 20 offices throughout the U.S. as well as London and Greece, serving ships ranging from small fishing vessels to giant tankers.

Kelly, a Fall River native, said his interests in the rebirth of downtown Providence and the utilization of its historic buildings grew in recent years, particularly after he moved to Providence’s East Side.

So he began searching for the building that would allow him to bring the business back to Providence. He looked at 80 buildings and was particularly excited about the Jewelry District.

Then he looked at the Medical Society building, which was built in 1912. Its classic architecture helped get it listed with the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984. But it had been empty for several years and was badly deteriorated. The Medical Society moved in 2003 to a space in the Foundry Building. The doctors left behind a building designed for another era. The second floor was dominated by a large auditorium with soaring ceilings, built in a time when lecturers updated local doctors on medical advances. There were large rest rooms for men, a tiny one for women, reflecting a period when female doctors were a distinct minority.

In back was a three-floor library. But the society had donated most of its books to Brown University.

Kelly said his desire to preserve the building’s historical architecture prodded him into making one of his biggest decisions. Early on it became clear that the building needed a large heating and air conditioning system and the only place it would fit was the roof — where it would be highly visible and very ugly.

At that point, Virginia L. Branch and others at Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels architects guided Kelly to a geothermal system designed by Innovative Construction & Design Solutions LLC, of Guilford, Conn.

This week a big drilling rig is jacked up in the narrow space between the building and the sidewalk, grinding the two, 1,500-foot-deep wells that will provide a steady supply of ground water that will provide the building’s heat in the winter and cool it down in the summer.

Engineer Kenneth J. Eldridge says the wells will provide a constant source of water ranging from 46 to 50 degrees that will be pumped up to at a rate of 78 gallons per minute to a heat exchanger, and then recycled back into the ground.

“As far as we know, this is the first commercial use of geothermal downtown,” says Branch.

The only mechanical equipment is a small unit in the basement, and individual units scattered around the offices to let people have individual temperature controls. Moran will be spared the costs of air conditioning and fuel oil.

Next door, no storm water will run off the small parking lot because the Horsley Witten Group has designed bioswales, vegetated borders and drains to capture the rainwater.

Inside, the open floor space on the first and second floors will remain open offices, with their sweeping views of downtown. More women’s rest rooms have been added, as well as a computer room and a shower for those who bicycle to work.

The three-story library space in back will be converted to two floors of offices and a conference room. From the outside, three floors of windows will remain intact. Inside, glass walls will allow the three floors of windows to shine their light onto two floors of workspace.

Kelly says he has 33 people at his Warwick office. After they move into the Providence building, he plans to hire 12 more.

Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who is expected to recognize Moran’s return to the city in a news conference this week, praised the building in a statement as “a true showcase facility.”

Cicilline said his tour of the building left him impressed with “the big things like pioneering a geothermal heating-cooling system on a commercial scale and the widespread use of recycled materials, to the little things, like non-toxic paints and bike racks for employees. Moran is setting a high green standard for others to follow.”

With work still under way, Kelly said he doesn’t know how long it will take for the energy savings and other benefits to recoup the extra costs of going green with the building. Moran spent $3.55 million to buy the building and it is investing several million dollars more in the renovations.

He said the work would have not been feasible had it not been for nearly $2 million in historic tax credits.

He said he’s especially appreciative because he thinks the state sometimes goes overboard attracting new businesses while not doing enough to support those already here.

“Existing business can renew themselves in this knowledge-based economy,” Kelly said. “We stayed here because we have such a huge intellectual capital here with our colleges and universities. And as a small company, we can be more nimble than many of the big companies.

During the tour, Kelly makes it clear he’s proud of the building, daunted a bit by the complexities of the renovation and yet excited by how nicely he expects it will come out.

“We were a bunch of maritime guys who didn’t know what we

plord@projo.com