Knights of Columbus Building on Park Ave. Sells for $620,000

The Knights of Columbus building at 1047 Park Avenue has sold to the tune of $620,000.

The prominent structure sits along busy Park Avenue — Cranston’s central artery — two blocks from Cranston Stadium and was once the envy of Knights of Columbus chapters from around the country when it was built in 1963. At the time more than 800 active members filled the building at a spot the Cranston Council 1738 has owned for more than 100 years.

Today there are just 250 members, 50 of which are the active ones, according to the Cranston Herald, and the organization decided that it was time to sell the building.

The overhead costs were just too great, said John Cardullo, Grand Knight.

It was a difficult decision, but “This whole transaction has been months in the making,” Cardullo told the Herald. “This building has gotten to be a little bit more than we could handle and a move was becoming more and more necessary with each passing year.”

Real estate records show the buyer is ADL Properties LLC, which reportedly plans to turn the building into a healthcare facility.

The broker for the sale was none other than Cranston’s Albert Scaralia of Albert Realtors, which maintains an office on Reservoir Avenue.

The 12,000 square foot building includes a large function room on the second floor and offices and lounge space.

The initial asking price was $920,000. The property’s most recent assessment pegs the value at $940,800.

The lot is 28,720 square feet and is zoned C4.

That wasn’t the only sale for Scaralia recently. He also was the broker in a $135,000 sale of 162 Fletcher Ave. to Frank and Susan Zincone. The seller was W&J Realty. Until recently, the building had been used as an auto repair, service and detailing shop. The 3,618 structure with garage entry was built in 1957 and is at the intersection of Fletcher and Atwood Avenues.