PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two iconic downtown buildings, the former Providence Journal building at 203 Westminster St., and its next-door neighbor, the former Kresge's department store, have been sold for $2.3 million to a Boston-area businessman who plans to rehabilitate them.

William Thibeault controls the two LLCs that purchased these properties in transactions recorded on March 31. Barrington attorney Richard Bennett said he is a minority partner. The ornate former Providence Journal building, built in 1906, and home to the Journal for less than 30 years, was sold for $1,792,122, and the smaller, Art Deco-style Kresge, built in 1920, was sold for $532,878. Together, Bennett said, they have about 120,000 square feet of space.

Arthur "Sandy" Schacht, of Schacht Associates, represented the former owner of both buildings, Martha W. DeBourgknecht, of Boston, widow of Pierre DeBourgknecht, doing business as Greater Texas Properties Inc., and Old ProJo LLC. Michael J. Giuttari, of MG Commercial, and Bob Nickerson of Stone Tower Properties, also participated in the sales. Schacht said the DeBourgknechts had owned the buildings since the late 1980s.

On Thursday afternoon, Thibeault and Bennett said, they met with Mayor Jorge Elorza at City Hall. At the same time, Thibeault's crew was already across the street, beginning the work of cleaning up the former Journal building. Thibeault said he wants the exteriors "cleaned up" and washed as soon as possible. There are a couple of tenants remaining in the former Journal building, but the Kresge, where some interior demolition was started at some point, is entirely vacant, Bennett said.

Thibeault said the mayor was very "welcoming" and expressed excitement about their plans to revitalize the buildings.

Thibeault said he would like to see ground-floor retail in the buildings, which may end up connected, and office or residential uses on the upper floors. He said he has started to meet with local architects.

The Everett, Mass.-based Thibeault said he has had his eye on the former Journal building, which he called "a forgotten jewel," for several years. The same building, if located in Boston, would easily fetch $45 million to $50 million, he said.

According to the Providence Preservation Society and American Institute of Architects' "Guide to Providence Architecture," the former Journal Building is "one of Providence's best early 20th century commercial buildings."

"The swaggering confidence of this building reflects both the background of designer Robert Swain Peabody, a graduate of Harvard and Paris' Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and the pre-eminence of the state's leading newspaper," the guide added. The Providence Journal today is located as a tenant on the second floor of 75 Fountain St., Providence, which opened as the Journal headquarters in 1934 and was purchased in 2015 by Massachusetts-based Nordblom Co. and Providence's Cornish Associates.



Thibeault has purchased and redeveloped many properties in the Boston area, but he said that high prices there have led him to look to Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island for value. He recently purchased the shuttered Montaup Electric power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, at auction for $3.95 million, and later sold close to 11 acres of the 16.9-acre parcel to National Grid for $3.7 million. Bennett said that in another deal, Thibeault, working with a partner from California, has purchased two city blocks in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in a plan to build 700 new apartments there. In March, Thibeault purchased the Hess LNG property in Fall River.

—cdunn@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7913

On Twitter: @ChristineMDunn