PROVIDENCE – After receiving a buyout offer from an Irish firm, the owners of The 903 Residences have decided to “test the waters” by putting the condominum complex on the market, according to Joseph Paolino Jr., a principal in Paolino Properties.

With the adjacent property being cleaned up after the demolition of the historic Providence Fruit & Produce Warehouse on Harris Avenue, and the dollar weakening against the euro and other currencies, the time seemed right to him and his partners, New York-based Athena Group, Paolino said. He declined to disclose the amount of the Irish offer.

“We don’t have a set price on it, but our business is to sell this out – individually, one at a time, or if somebody wanted to buy the whole thing in one shot, that’s fine, too,” Paolino told Providence Business News today.

During 2007, 47 condos sold at The 903, bringing total sales to date to nearly 100 condos worth about $35 million, he said.

The potential for “Tax Incremental Financing” along the Woonasquatucket River – a prospect pushed by two former mayors, Paolino and 903 project manager Vincent A. Cianci Jr. – is another selling point, Paolino said.

Designating the neighborhood as blighted, and making it a TIF district, would allow the city to raise money for redevelopment by selling bonds it would expect to repay from future property tax “increments” as values in the district rose. Paolino hopes to have a measure before the City Council within a few months proposing such a neighborhood redevelopment, including the construction of a riverwalk.

When Carpionato Properties Inc. demolished the adjacent warehouse in January, it spurred a public outcry (READ MORE). But Paolino described the Providence Fruit parcel’s redevelopment – proposed as commercial space – as a boon to both his own property and the surrounding area.

“He’s one of the finest developers that we have in New England,” he said of the Johnston-based firm’s president, Alfred Carpionato. “Every time he’s done a development it’s been five-star.”

Paolino Properties, founded in 1900, is a family-owned property management and development firm focusing on office buildings, apartments, time-share resorts, marinas, shopping centers, hotels and parking facilities. For more information, e-mail info@paolinoproperties.com or visit www.PaolinoProperties.com.