PROVIDENCE – A group of properties in the city’s Valley neighborhood, including the 15,850-square-foot mill building occupied by produce distributor B. Del Toro & Sons Inc., were sold together recently in a portfolio sale for $1.3 million, Sweeney Real Estate & Appraisal announced.
The portfolio spans two parcels and four buildings, which include the shuttered 540-square-foot Rose’s Diner restaurant building at 405 Harris Ave., a neighboring 6,700-square-foot storage building, a 2,100-square-foot service shop, and the B. Del Toro & Sons building at 393 Harris Ave.
The properties were sold by BMJ Properties LLC, which is managed by Michael DelToro, president of B. Del Toro & Sons, and Julie Ann Mello, vice president of the Providence produce distributor.
The B. Del Toro & Sons company has been doing business in Rhode Island since 1973. The family business was founded under Biagio Del Toro, operating first with an office on Bath Street in Providence before relocating to Harris Avenue in the late 1980s.
Del Toro & Sons plans to lease back a portion of the property for two years, according to Sweeney Real Estate & Appraisal, which represented the seller in the deal. Other tenants at the properties have been invited to sign a new lease, even as the buyer has long-term development plans for the site, the real estate firm said.
The properties were bought by Harris Avenue LLC, which was represented by HomeSmart Professionals Real Estate in the transaction. The limited liability company was established in August by Providence nonprofit ONE Neighborhood Builders. The nonprofit is dedicated to developing affordable housing in the state such as the $8.5 million Elmwood Neighborhood Revitalization it completed in 2003, providing 46 affordable family rentals, and the Broad Street Homes project that’s now in predevelopment with 47 affordable homes planned in Central Falls.
The 393 Harris Ave. building was constructed in 1900, according to the city’s property tax evaluation database. The building contains a 608-square-foot cooler, a 300-square-foot freezer, a loading dock and 8,000 square feet of paved surface on the 0.5-acre property. It’s a two-story building, which also has a basement, according to property records.
Providence assessors more recently valued the 393 Harris Ave. property in fiscal year 2022 as being worth $674,500, according to the database.
The 405 Harris Ave. property, including the restaurant building that was constructed in 1950, was most recently valued at $252,000 by the city in fiscal 2022, with half of that value deriving from the 0.48 acres of land on the parcel, according to the database.