Barrington Developer Plans Apartment Complex in E.P.

A Barrington developer and commercial-property owner is looking to convert a former dormitory in East Providence into a 75-unit multi-family apartment building.

Joseph S. Ruggiero wants to turn the former Edmund Hall for Johnson and Wales University into Hamlet Court, a building with efficiency, studio and one-bedroom apartments.  It sits next to the Bowling Academy at 350 Taunton Ave.

Representatives for Ruggiero went before the East Providence Planning Board Wednesday night, July 10, to get a recommendation to the City Council to rezone the facility with conditions. It was approved unanimously.

The conditions are that the building would be allowed to convert from a dorm to apartments with less than the required number of parking spaces – 115 instead of 150 or two per unit. A large chunk of those spaces would be leased from the Bowling Academy.

The recommendation for the zoning change has the support of the Planning Department and has passed muster already with the public works, fire and police departments.

“The plan for the building also is consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan,” said Kelly Morris, a land-use consultant for Hamlet Court Real Estate, the firm created by Ruggiero to convert and operate the building.

Paul Carlson, of Insight Engineering in Seekonk, said that the building has been vacant for three years since the university moved out. It was operated as a dormitory from 2002 to 2010. Before that, the building was an assisted living facility with the same number of apartments.

Work could start as early as September with the City Council’s approval of the zoning change.

Ruggiero has developed and owns and operates a variety of commercial properties in Barrington, including Lighthouse Marina on Bullock's Cove, which has been approved for 10 houses, including two affordable housing units. Foundations have been poured for the homes.

Ruggiero also remains interested in the former Zion Bible College property on Primrose Hill in Barrington, Carlson said. Ruggiero's bid at an auction in 2011 for the former college campus came in second to a bid from a Chinese developer from Weston, Mass., who plans to keep the campus as some type of school for international students.

"We've tried to contact him," said Carlson, but with no success.