Broad and Pine streets are in the heart of SWAP’s market.

The nonprofit organization known as SWAP — Stop Wasting Abandoned Property — has a 32-year history of working to provide affordable housing in South Providence, but the group is now including commercial development in its neighborhood-building mission.

This summer, the group is about to complete what might be its most ambitious and high-profile project to date, a $10.5-million mixed-use rental and commercial property, at 500 Broad St., called SouthSide Gateways, at the site of the former Tire King.

Carla DeStefano, SWAP’s executive director, said the project includes 35 one- and two-bedroom rental apartments on the second and third floors and 10 business condominiums on the ground floor.

The 17 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom apartments are income-restricted; rents will range from $550 to $638 per month. To qualify, the maximum annual income for a single individual is $30,000 a year, and for a four-person household, the maximum income is $44,000.

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Southside Gateway

Prices for the business condominiums range from $111,500 to $215,000. DeStefano said she cannot divulge names, but reservation deposits are in place for four of the condos, from businesses including a café, a phone and communication store, a beauty salon and a photographer.

Initially, SWAP planned to rent the commercial condos as well, but Mayor David N. Cicilline asked the group to consider selling them, according to DeStefano. The mayor explained that many business owners would like the option of owning their own space, which could bring more stability to the neighborhood, where many commercial properties are owned by a small group of investors, she said. DeStefano said too much of the privately owned commercial property in South Providence is in “substandard” condition.

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

DeStefano said the new construction was designed to fit in with the architectural character of the neighborhood. “The concept was that externally, it would look like the two- to three-family homes” in the nearby residential streets, which have an abundance of “very classic, New England-style wood frame housing,” she said. “We were not going to put an I.M. Pei-like building here.”

The L-shaped building has an open plaza where the two sides meet to allow people easy access to the back of the building. “You don’t have to walk around it” to get to the rear, she said.

The interiors of the apartments are light-filled, modern and spacious, with large windows, and an open design that would also make it easy to accommodate disabled individuals “with only slight changes,” DeStefano said. Some apartments have views of Grace Church Cemetery and downtown Providence. The parking spaces and entrances at the rear of the building are all one level, with no raised curbing, and all the doorways are wide enough for a wheelchair.

She said the apartments will provide an alternative for people who don’t want to live in single-family or multifamily housing. “It’s a very walkable, livable urban neighborhood,” she said. “There is a bus stop across the street, and it is very easy to walk downtown.” There will also be a bicycle garage in the building, she said.

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.

Much of SWAP’s rental housing is adorned with bright flower boxes and perennial gardens that are maintained by the organization. SWAP’s decision to install wrought iron fencing at many of its owner-occupied and rental houses has been picked up by other property owners in the neighborhood.

DeStefano said SWAP hopes that the development of SouthSide Gateways, at a location that is a “focal point” in the neighborhood, may also help inspire a revitalization of one of South Providence’s major commercial avenues.

cdunn@projo.com