In late August, the Providence Place Mall was acquired by an investment group consisting of DW Partners, Paolino Properties and Pyramid Management Group, concluding the mall’s near two-year period of receivership.
With over 6,500 investors considering ownership, this three-member investment group finally put down a $133 million investment on Aug. 19, Aaron Bryson, partner and head of commercial real estate at DW Partners, wrote in an email to The Herald.
For DW Partners, this acquisition was a long time in the making. “Given the amount of debt on the property relative to our estimate of its underlying value, it was an asset that had been on our radar for some time,” Bryson wrote. “We believed the problems with its capital structure did not necessarily reflect the potential of the underlying asset,” he added.
The mall’s period of receivership began in late 2024 after private lenders alleged that Brookfield Properties owed $259 million after it took out $305 million in loans in 2011.
DW Partners contends that the mall’s main issue was that it was dealing with too much debt compared to the value of the property and the funds that it received.
With the acquisition, the mall is now “financially stable,” Bryson wrote. Without an “unsustainable level of debt,” the investment group holds enough capital and flexibility to “invest back into the property” through improvements to security, parking and the overall customer experience.
The Providence Place Mall is one of “downtown Providence’s most important economic entities,” supporting jobs and attracting millions of visitors annually, wrote Carl Austin Miller Grondin MPA’24, press secretary for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.
“Stable ownership creates an opportunity for new investment and continued growth,” attracting new establishments to Providence’s mall, he wrote. The Smiley administration is “encouraged to see an ownership group with strong local ties make a long-term investment in the mall and in Providence,” he wrote.
The investment group merges “DW’s real estate investment and capital-markets expertise, Paolino Properties’ deep local knowledge and relationships and Pyramid’s operating and leasing expertise,” Bryson wrote.
But for the three partners, securing the acquisition required a “complicated transaction,” Bryson added, noting that the group had to contend with a complex judicial receivership sale in order to get ownership. The acquisition was finalized in August after the group was chosen and approved by the Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Brian Stern.
Providence Place was originally developed and managed by Pyramid. Robert Congel, the majority owner of Pyramid at the time, was then bought out by Commonwealth Development in 1996, three years before the mall opened.
“We are thrilled to welcome Providence Place back to the Pyramid portfolio,” Stephen Congel — Robert Congel’s son and CEO of Pyramid — wrote in a press release.
According to a press release from Paolino Properties, the acquisition of the mall is “deeply personal” to Joseph Paolino Jr., former Providence mayor and current CEO managing partner at Paolino Properties.
“When I was mayor, it was my dream to bring major retail to downtown Providence,” Paolino said in the press release, adding that he had collaborated with Robert Congel to “lay the groundwork” for the mall.
Now, over 25 years later, “I have the opportunity to help shape Providence Place’s next chapter,” he wrote.
Providence Place Mall has held “such a visible role in Rhode Island for more than 25 years,” wrote Bryson. “The opportunity now is to think about what Providence Place can and should be for the next 25.”
Laila Posner is a senior staff writer covering business and development.
