Providence, RI Washington Trust’s Commercial Real Estate Group recently provided $16.147 million to Empire Lasalle, LLC, an affiliate of Berkeley Investments, for the rehab financing of One Empire Plaza, a 104,343 s/f class A office building.
One Empire Plaza makes up 20% of the total square footage in the city’s Empire District. Located off of I-95 in downtown, the building is being rehabbed to accommodate two new tenants, the Social Security Administration and Roger Williams University. The Social Security Administration will occupy the building’s entire sixth floor, while Roger Williams University will occupy the first through fifth floors, nearly doubling the size of the University’s presence is downtown. The building has sat vacant since previous tenant, 38 Studios, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
“We are excited to work on this transaction with Berkeley and are pleased to see One Empire Plaza, which is a fantastic building, being occupied with such strong tenants,” said Julia Anne Slom, senior vice president & team leader of Washington Trust’s commercial real estate group. “Berkeley has demonstrated its commitment to the building and to the city of Providence with this visible, transformative project.”
Washington Trust’s Commercial Real Estate Group provides commercial real estate mortgages for the construction, refinancing, or purchasing of investment real estate projects. Financing ranges in size from several hundred thousand dollars up to multi-million dollar projects.
Founded in 1800, Washington Trust is the oldest community bank in the nation and one of the Northeast’s premier financial services companies. Washington Trust offers a full range of financial services, including commercial banking, mortgage banking, personal banking and wealth management and trust services through its offices located in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Washington Trust Company is a subsidiary of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.