WaterFire to detail campaign to finish new HQ, arts center

WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE has been working for more than a year on turning this former U.S. Rubber Corp. storage facility in Providence's Valley neighborhood into a new headquarters and arts center. Next week it will announce plans for a capital campaign to complete the financing for the project. / COURTESY WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE
WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE has been working for more than a year on turning this former U.S. Rubber Corp. storage facility in Providence's Valley neighborhood into a new headquarters and arts center. Next week it will announce plans for a capital campaign to complete the financing for the project. / COURTESY WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE

PROVIDENCE – WateFire Providence over the next four months will continue work to renovate a 38,000-square-foot former factory as a headquarters and multi-use performing arts center.

While the financing for the $13.7 million facility is largely in hand, the nonprofit next week will announce the details of a capital campaign to both raise funds for its completion and provide for organizational needs into the future.

Announcement of the formal campaign is scheduled for Nov. 17, at a celebration at the facility under construction. The annual fundraiser is called FireBall.

The new WaterFire Arts Center is expected to be completed in March. It will include a permanent home for the first time for the organization, now spread among five locations, according to Managing Director Peter Mello.

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Work on the property began in October 2015 with environmental remediation. The site, at 475 Valley St. in the Valley neighborhood, is adjacent to the renovated ALCO property.

The design is by Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects, and construction by TRAC Builders. Originally built in 1929 as a U.S. Rubber Corp. storage building, the facility is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The renovation plan will include its adaptation to a multi-use arts center to host events, performances and exhibitions.

Funding sources include $5 million in New Markets and federal Historic Tax Credits purchased by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, $2.25 million in state Historic Preservation Tax Credits, as well as a state cultural grant, bridge financing from a nonprofit Finance Fund and an EPA brownfield grant.

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