On Aug, 20, 1999, crowds streamed through the Providence Place mall, ready to celebrate the long-awaited opening day of the downtown shopping destination.
On Thursday — exactly 27 years later — a much smaller and more muted celebration unfolded as the mall’s new owners gathered outside the first-floor Apple store to announce that they had closed the sale.
“Never did I think I would be standing at a podium in the Providence Place mall as its owner,” said Joe Paolino Jr., former city mayor who now heads downtown real estate development group Paolino Properties. “Sometimes you end up right back where you began.”
Indeed, the $133 million, all-cash purchase by Paolino Properties and New York management firm Pyramid Management Group marks a poetic full-circle moment for both sets of new owners. Paolino helped craft the deal for the mall’s creation, setting the wheels in motion during his time as city mayor and cementing details later as state economic development director. Robert Congel, the late CEO of Pyramid, was majority partner for the company that built the landmark structure in the 1990s. His son Stephen Congel, now Pyramid CEO, sat in on early mall development meetings as a young employee for his dad’s company.
Their personal attachment to the 13.2-acre site and professional expertise won over the court-appointed receivers, who recommended the Paolino-Pyramid purchase offer to the courts. Their proposal was one of three bids submitted through the receivership process — not the highest, but the only one with local ties and without conditions attached.
A Rhode Island Superior Court judge approved the transaction in June, awaiting finalization of a purchase and sale agreement.
With the bank transfer completed late Wednesday, Thursday was the first day Paolino and Congel could call themselves mall owners. The timing, on the 27th anniversary of the mall’s opening, was “pure coincidence,” Paolino said.
But their plans for reviving the struggling shopping destination, plagued by store vacancies, reduced foot traffic, and, since November 2024, the state equivalent of bankruptcy, are deliberate.
“We love to manage properties that are complex, that have real idiosyncrasies, as this one does, and make them special,” Congel said.
Congel, whose company manages nine shopping destinations totaling 12 million square feet and $2.3 billion in sales, wants to bring Pyramid’s “gold-standard” security system to Providence. He declined to offer specifics on the security protocol, but mentioned equipment and personnel.
Paolino also named security improvements as his “No. 1 priority.” Rare but high-profile incidents of violence in or near the mall — including a 2018 shooting outside Nordstrom — have sown safety concerns in shoppers and tenants.
Also on the to-do list: technological upgrades to the parking garage. Problems with the parking management and payment system left shoppers stuck in the garage for hours on a Saturday in March 2025. Paolino said he’s still hearing from people “getting stuck” in the labyrinthian parking structure.
Much of the physical maintenance was put on the back burner under the previous owner and operator, Brookfield Properties. After Brookfield defaulted on the mortgage loan backed by the mall space, private lenders filed suit in state Superior Court, claiming the mall owner more than $259 million in principal and interest from the 2011 loan.
As the claims process played out in court, a pair of local attorneys designated as court-appointed receivers began the early stages of the makeover, bringing in a new management company to oversee daily operations, and investing nearly $100,000 in repairs and improvements to the shopping center and connected parking garage.
Paolino and Congel declined to comment when asked how much money they plan to invest in cosmetic and infrastructure improvements in the first year.
They were also tight-lipped about courtship of new tenants, though Congel touted multiple calls from prospective tenants who heard about the sale even before it was solidified. Meanwhile, Paolino continues his own pursuit of a Costco, though he admits the downtown shopping center does not offer the square footage or suburban environment the big box retailer typically looks for.
“I want Costco,” Paolino said Thursday. “I am not announcing it because we don’t have it.”
But, he’s talked to the company, whose board of directors includes former Gov. Gina Raimondo and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Helena Buonanno Foulkes.
“They haven’t thrown us out, and they haven’t signed anything,” Paolino said.
Separately, Paolino wants a supermarket, which he said is also a long-held desire of Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. Smiley, who joined the executives for the announcement, heralded the new ownership as a “bright horizon” for the capital city.
“It’s not the relationship we had in the past,” Smiley said, alluding to the global real estate firm, now known as BGRE, that formerly owned and operated the mall.
Unlike at least one of the competing bids for the property, Paolino and Pyramid have not sought any tax incentives from the state or city. At least, not yet.
An existing 30-year property tax agreement with the city is set to expire in 2028. Under the agreement, the mall pays $500,000 a year in city property taxes, rather than the $26.8 million it would pay if taxed at the full, fiscal 2027 city commercial tax rate.
“There’s no reason to ask for something when we don’t know what we’re asking for,” Paolino said of tax incentives. “If something dramatic happens, then we’ll have to have that conversation.”
But, Paolino emphasized stability and predictability in the relationship with city and state officials. Smiley and Gov. Dan McKee are both locked in tough primary battles against Democratic challengers David Morales and Foulkes, respectively.
Paolino acknowledged when asked that he had concerns about leadership changes resulting from the 2026 election cycle, but declined to elaborate.
Morales has expressed public support for the new ownership and redevelopment plans, including the addition of a grocery store.
The mall remains at 80% occupancy, Congel confirmed. He declined to comment on specific, existing tenants, including Apple, but said most seem assured by the stability provided by the sale.
DW Partners, a New York real estate investment firm, is also part of the partnership deal with Paolino Properties and Pyramid. Company representatives did not attend the announcement event.
Paolino and Congel declined to disclose the payment split between the three partners for the sale.
This story was originally reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
