Providence Preservation Society identifies nine companies buying up homes around Providence College

Rapid redevelopment and some targeted demolition have turned single- and multi-family homes into mostly rental properties for students.

Providence Preservation Society (PPS) announced its 2025 Most Endangered Places List at its Annual Meeting on January 22. The list includes the neighborhoods abutting Providence College in Elmhurst, Smith Hill, and Wanskuck. Rapid redevelopment and some targeted demolition have turned single- and multi-family homes into mostly rental properties for students.

A new map created by PPS shows that a handful of landlords and developers now own nearly 260 parcels in the immediate vicinity of the campus. Block-long stretches of some streets—including Eaton Street, Pinehurst Avenue, Pembroke Avenue, Liege Street, and Oakland Avenue—are entirely or almost entirely owned by these institutional investors.

Here’s the video:

“Every year, as many people know, we invite community members to nominate places to the annual most endangered places list,” said PPS’s Executive Director, Marisa Brown. “The list is intended to bring attention to places in the City that are vulnerable, under pressure, and of special architectural, cultural, or historic significance to their communities. The list is shorter this year than in years past, but the reporting is deeper. We spent a lot of time over the last few months, after nominations came in, digging quite deep into some of these sites.

“Community members who live in the neighborhoods abutting Providence College - in Elmhurst, Smith Hill, and Wanskuck - nominated these areas last year. They’ve been nominated again due to redevelopment, gentrification, displacement, and some targeted demolition. Single-family and mostly multifamily homes are being bought and turned into student housing.

“Last year, when we reported on this with the Most Endangered Places list, we reported it anecdotally. This year, Katy Pickens researched to map the changes underway. She found that a handful of landlords and developers now own almost 260 homes near the campus.

“What you’ll see if you look at that map is that some of these streets, including Eaton Street, Pinehurst Avenue, Pembroke Avenue, Lee Street, and Oakland Avenue, are entirely owned by institutional investors.

“All streets impacted by this wave of rapid redevelopment, which began about 20 years ago, are in Rhode Island Health Equity Zones. Most are in a Justice40 Tract, which the federal government identifies as an under-resourced neighborhood. About 30 houses are also part of the Oakland Avenue National Historic District, designated in 1984.

“While Providence College is not directly responsible for this wave of redevelopment, it bears a significant responsibility. From 2012 to 2024, ten new academic and recreational buildings were built on campus—and only one dorm. At the same time, one dorm was demolished. PC’s current strategic plan does not acknowledge or address this issue but is laser-focused on its institutional advancement. Our website has more detailed data on PC’s student body and the number of students living off-campus.

“In 2025, PPS will continue to report on and map the rapid redevelopment and the strategic gentrification of these neighborhoods, as well as report on PC’s action or inaction. We will add new research about the neighborhoods that have been impacted by this targeted redevelopment to our online guide to Providence architecture to better inform the public and community members about the cultural and historical vitality of these 19th and early 20th-century neighborhoods, and advocate for policies that target this scale of investor ownership of Providence’s housing stock to support first time home buyers, curb the rise in rents in these areas, and limit hyper-local real estate monopolies.

“On our website, we also linked to a New York Times article that came out just a couple of weeks ago. That is a good overview of how states are starting to address these exact issues. Many states have legislation pending to address some of these issues.”

The nine real estate companies that own the mapped homes include The 02908 Club and Amicus Properties (132), Strive (69), Green Light Investment LLC (11), D&D Realty Management LLC (13), Big Dreamz LLC (9), Veritas Holding LLC (3), Sheldon E. Schwartz (10), SHA Investments LLC (5), and Federal Hill Capital LLC (6).

PPS’s Katy Pickens worked to find each parcel these businesses own. “The data compiled in this map wasn’t easily accessible — often landlords will create various limited liability companies to be the listed owner for their rentals, making it harder to know who owns what,” Pickens said. “But when pulled together, the full scope of ownership and consolidation of the area’s properties emerges.”

I spoke to Pickens briefly after the presentation:

Katy Pickens: I thought it would be interesting to try and get a more tangible idea of what the landscape around PC looks like. Walking through, you’re immediately hit with how many houses are meant for student rentals. I wanted to map it out and see what it looks like, and I quickly figured out that there are a few big companies with limited liability corporations listed as the owners of these properties.

Steve Ahlquist: There are nine companies...

Katy Pickens: I think there were nine companies. One individual owned about 10 properties. There might be more. It’s not an exhaustive list.

Steve Ahlquist: You didn’t go through every house in the area; you went through the obvious homes.

Katy Pickens: Yes.

Steve Ahlquist: This business strategy is raising rents around Providence College. The whole idea of creating student housing is so you can charge more.

Katy Pickens: We’ve seen this pattern play out with Brown University in the 1960s and 1970s, pushing out the immigrant populations there. Around PC, it feels like the next wave of student gentrification.

Steve Ahlquist: And beyond the areas around colleges and universities, have you noticed it anywhere else? I’ve noticed a lot of corporate housing purchases all over the State.

Katy Pickens: Rhode Island real estate is hot right now. A lot of money flows in, and change is happening.

Steve Ahlquist: What does doing this research entail? Do you go to City databases?

Katy Pickens: I worked with the tax assessor’s database, which lists an individual property’s owner when and how much it’s sold for. I used the City’s GIS. I also used Google Maps a lot of the time just to see when the Strive signs went up. I used sites like Redfin and Zillow and the Rhode Island business database with the Secretary of State.

Steve Ahlquist: Many of these houses are owned by Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs), which these companies then own. Does that make tracking ownership difficult?

Katy Pickens: I think Strive, for example, probably has 10 or a dozen LLCs. Every address could have a separate LLC. That is what happens, especially on the bigger projects. They’re incentivized to create a new LLC if there’s a higher liability.

Sometimes, I would go off the listings on the website. I would go to an address, see who owns it, and then search that LLC—reverse engineering it.

And there are some missing. I am sure I missed a few.

Steve Ahlquist: Did you reach out to any of the companies directly?

Katy Pickens: Not yet. We want to continue reporting on this, so eventually, down the line, yes. I know, for instance, that The 02908 Club was acquired or merged with Amicus Properties, which does this kind of work in other cities throughout the country.

PPS Action Items in 2025:

• We will continue to report on and map the rapid redevelopment and encroachment of investor ownership of the neighborhoods surrounding PC, as well as PC’s action or inaction, to inform the public and concerned community members of the extent of student-driven housing pressure in 02908 and its impacts on long-time residents.

• To better inform the public and community members about the history and cultural vitality of these 19th- and early 20th-century neighborhoods, PPS will add new research about the neighborhoods impacted by this targeted redevelopment to its online Guide to Providence Architecture.

• Advocate for policies targeting this scale of investor ownership of Providence’s housing stock to curb the rise in rents in these areas, support first-time home buyers, and limit hyper-local real estate monopolies.

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Additional sites that were listed on PPS’s heritage watch list this year include Atlantic Mills (1863, 1882), the Cranston Street Armory (1907), Privately Owned Public Spaces / Collier Point Park (1996), 11 Higgins Ave (1893), and the Industrial Trust Building (1928). Information about each of these sites is available on PPS’s website.

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Providence City Councilmember Shelley Peterson responded to ProvidencePreservation Society’s 2025 Most Endangered Places List in a press release:

“The trends outlined in PPS’s report are alarming but, sadly, not surprising. It is unacceptable for a small handful of predatory investors to control entire streets in our City. While Ward 14 families struggle to keep up with skyrocketing rents, consolidated real estate ownership allows student housing landlords to raise prices on a whim. These exploitative buying practices have forced too many people out of the neighborhoods they were raised in, and quality of life has eroded for those that remain. I am grateful for PPS’s important work highlighting this issue. As we try to balance the needs of our transient student population and the working-class families who have lived in this community for generations, I’m committed to the policy that puts people over profit. The interests of a few should never outweigh the needs of our neighbors.”

Councilmember Peterson has prioritized student housing challenges in Ward 14 throughout her term. She established the Student Housing Task Force early last year. The Task Force meets regularly, bringing together local community representatives and residents to discuss concerns and develop policies around student housing. The next meeting will be held on Saturday, February 15.

In addition, Councilmember Peterson successfully pushed for the inclusion of student housing language in the 2024 Comprehensive Plan, opening avenues for tighter regulation.

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