America’s First Mall Repurposed as Apartments

In 1828, the first indoor mall in the country was built in Providence, RI. The Westminster Arcade, as it was called, was declared a national landmark in 1976.  Perhaps partly because it had no elevator, the businesses on the top two floors did poorly and the mall went bankrupt  and closed in 2008.  Private investors bought the building and, after a $10 million renovation, turned the individual spaces on the top two floors into fully furnished micro-apartments (the smallest ones taking up only 225 sq. ft.).  They have no ovens (but they do have refrigerators, dishwashers and microwaves), flat screen tvs, table and chairs, bed and dresser, private baths, a bedroom and a small living room space with some built-in seating.  The glass ceiling above the central atrium brings terrific natural light into the building, so the interior windows allow for sunny, bright apartments.

Laundry and storage facilities are located in a central space in the building and there is a common area with tv and arcade games, creating a community space. Similarly, the atrium houses restaurants and shops and acts as a kind of “main street” for the residents.   While there are cheaper (and larger) places for rent in the Providence area, the newly minted Arcade Providence is in such demand that there are 400 people on the waiting list.  The micro-apartment trend is taking off, especially there has been an increase of single people renting living space. People looking to do more with less, conserve space and energy and repurpose existing resources (abandoned buildings) are driving the demand.  Many cities are relaxing some of their zoning and preservation rules to allow for similar projects, particularly where fairly low cost housing is especially difficult to find. I wonder if we, in the Philadelphia area, will start to see a similar phenomenon.