Walter Parks-led group takes on the ‘worst building on the block’ in Arts District

The 109-year-old building has been boarded up along Broad Street for years. (Mike Platania photos)

A vacant Arts District building is set to get new life thanks in part to one of the city’s busier architects, who’s once again donning his developer cap. 

Walter Parks is leading a group that’s preparing to renovate 2-4 E. Broad St. into over a dozen apartments, plus commercial space. The three-story building faces the corner of Broad and Foushee streets and is currently unoccupied.

Parks, whose namesake architecture firm is based just down the block on Adams Street, said that for the 20 or so years he’s been in the neighborhood, 2-4 E. Broad St. has largely sat unused.

“At this point, it’s the worst building on the block. When we’re done it’ll be one of the best,” Parks said. “It’ll be a great way to bring the feel of a neighborhood up.”

Parks and his unnamed business partners bought 2-4 E. Broad St. in 2022 for $500,000 and are now preparing a historic tax-credit renovation of the 17,000-square-foot structure.

Once complete, it’ll house 14 apartments and a commercial space, which Parks said could become an office suite. Other than some water damage at the time of purchase, Parks said the 109-year-old building is in good shape. 

“The bones are really, really good,” he said. “The quality of the wood floors is much nicer than what you’ll find today, and the volume of space…we don’t usually build 12-foot ceilings in apartments in new construction.”

Work is expected to begin in the late summer or early fall, and a 10-month buildout will follow. UrbanCore Construction is the project’s general contractor. 

Parks is also working on developing more apartments south of the river. 

In the spring Parks was part of a group that received city approval to build a 5-story, 60-apartment building at 1401-1407 Hull St. in Manchester. Parks said they’re working on finalizing financing for that development and hope to have construction underway by spring 2025. 

Parks’ architecture practice, Walter Parks Architects, is one of the busiest local firms in the multifamily sector. It has designed new-construction apartment buildings like Manchester’s South Falls tower and the nearly-complete Parkline townhomes in the Fan. It’s also been the architect of numerous adaptive reuse developments around the city, including the apartment conversions of both the former LaDiff furniture building and the Mutual Building. 

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