PROVIDENCE – Granoff Associates LLC has sold the Turk’s Head building for $17.55 million, to a Pennsylvania-based grantee listed as 76 Westminster St. LLC, according to a Feb. 8 deed of sale.

Granoff principal Evan Granoff, who told Providence Business News today that he had owned the building since 1997, declined to comment on the sale.

The downtown landmark, at Westminster and Weybosset Streets, takes its name from the granite replica of a ship’s figurehead – depicting a Turk – that is mounted centrally on its third-floor façade.

“Back in the 1800s, there was a bar there,” Granoff said. “And they found – after a storm or a hurricane – a figurehead from a ship that was a Turk’s head, and they hung it outside the bar. And the place became known as the Turk’s Head. Like, ‘Meet me at the Turk’s Head.’” When the current building was erected in 1913, it kept the old name, he said.

According to Brown University’s Department of Architectural Studies, the 16-story granite-and-limestone building – now 95 years old – was designed for the Brown Land Co. by the architects Howells & Stokes, a New York firm also responsible for office buildings in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco.

The investor who purchased the building – 76 Westminster St. LLC – is listed at the same Philadelphia address as FB Capital Partners, the investment group to which Granoff Associates sold the nearby Union Trust building last year. (READ MORE) But Granoff today said he couldn’t comment on whether FB Capital Partners was involved in the Turk’s Head purchase.

FB Capital Partners Managing Director Gary Brandeis also declined to comment on whether his firm had been involved in the Turk’s Head deal.

The Union Trust building – the 12-story, 62,000-square-foot at 170 Westminster St. that the firm purchased from Granoff Associates in July, for $6.55 million – was FB Capital’s first purchase in New England, the firm said at the time; the company told PBN it intended to turn the office tower into an “iBuilding,” with free Wi-Fi access and other “intelligent building” features.

Brandeis told PBN in October that the firm’s investment strategy is to buy older, Class B office buildings and install technology upgrades to boost their long-term value.

FB Capital Partners LLC is a private partnership, based in Philadelphia, that has invested more than $475 million in real estate, manufacturing, finance and business-service concerns since 2003. To learn more, visit www.fbcp.com.

Granoff Associates LLC of Providence, also doing business as Greater Providence Properties, is an investment firm focusing on the management and redevelopment of nonresidential properties, according to company listings and regulatory filings.