The former bank building at Dorrance and Westminster is the current home of Federal Reserve, a special-events reception hall.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy Bill Murphy

The former Union Trust building, considered one of Providence’s architectural gems, has been sold to a Philadelphia-based private investment partnership for $6.55 million.

The 12-story, 62,000-square-foot building at the corner of Dorrance and Westminster streets was sold by Granoff Reality Limited Partnership, which had owned it since 1997.

The first floor of the building is occupied by the Federal Reserve, a special-events reception hall owned by restaurateurs Bob and Ann Burke.

The buyer, FB Capital Partners, of Philadelphia, said that “tenants should experience a seamless transition during the change in ownership,” according to a news release issued by MPM Property Management, which provides management services to the building.

“I think that the new owners have a very good investment strategy,” he said. “They certainly are very excited about Providence,” said Bob Burke in a telephone interview yesterday.

FB Capital has invested $475 million in 15 companies, according to the company’s Web site. The company typically makes investments of $5 million to $15 million in small to mid-capitalized private companies and real estate transactions in sectors or markets where it has achieved success in the past, the company said. It also seeks deals that will offer more opportunities for investment in the future.

The company was formed by Eric Blum and Michael C. Forman, and made its first investment in early 2003, according to the company’s Web site. A biography of Forman on the company site said he received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Rhode Island. He also has a law degree from Rutgers University.

“We are excited about our first acquisition in Providence and see great long-term potential in Providence’s office market, said Gary Brandeis, managing partner for real estate for FB Capital. “We focus on acquiring great real estate and engaging in best-in-class local firms to provide property level services.”

The building at 170 Westminster St. has a rich history. Providence land records indicate the property was once owned by the estate of William Warner Hoppin, a former governor of Rhode Island from June 1887 until May 1899.

The building that stands there today was built in 1901 by the Union Trust Co., whose principal investor was Marsden J. Perry, a wealthy entrepreneur originally from Rehoboth.

The bank grew into a successful business under Perry’s direction, and that success was built, in part, on his other business ventures, according to Providence — A Pictorial History by Patrick T. Conley and Paul R. Campbell (1982). Perry was once part owner of Narragansett Electric as well as Union Railroad Co.

The Union Trust building was designed, engineered and built by Stone, Carpenter & Willson, in the classical revival style, according to the National Register of Historical Places. The building was added to that registry in 1973.

The bank occupied the grand space on the first floor. With its gilded high ceilings and ornate decorations, it was once described by a Providence Journal critic as a structure with “unabashed luxury of appointments” that offered “ornament on a grand scale.”

Today, the first floor is adorned by 20-foot-high windows, each decorated with a stained glass coat of arms. They represent the people and institutions significant in the international banking world of the early 1900s: the Rothschilds, Alexander Hamilton, the Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Amsterdam.

The floor is inlaid marble. The ceiling displays 50 gold-trimmed coffers and hundreds of plaster molded flowers and three solid-bronze chandeliers.

Originally, the building lacked elevators that could bring visitors up the full 12 stories, according to a history of the building on Burke’s Federal Reserve Web site. Getting to the top floors was achieved by ascending a staircase made from green tinted 1-inch-thick glass. The transparency allowed light to filter into the building from a skylight, and provided visitors with a visual treat, the Web site said.

The building has changed hands a number of times. After Union Trust was purchased by the forerunner to Fleet Financial Group, the building served as the headquarters of the Greater Providence Deposit and Trust Co. That financial institution was one of about three-dozen credit unions and banks in Rhode Island that were closed by former Gov. Bruce Sundlun in 1991 during the state’s banking crisis.