Commercial Real Estate for Lease in Westerly, RI

Westerly is the southwestern corner of Rhode Island, on the east bank of the Pawcatuck River. It held 23,359 people at the 2020 census across 30.1 square miles of land. For a town that size it carries two things that are unusual: a compact nineteenth century downtown listed on the National Register, and a station on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

I am a licensed real estate salesperson with Switz Real Estate Associates Inc., holding salesperson licenses in both Connecticut and Rhode Island. I represent landlords and tenants across the Rhode Island border towns and New London County. Below is what a tenant, landlord, or investor should understand about this market.

Available Space in Westerly

Current listings are on the properties page, and not everything I am working on is posted there. In a market this size, space is usually spoken for before it is advertised.

If you have a Westerly requirement, call or text me at (860) 400-9476. I would rather hear it early than compete for it late.

The Westerly Commercial Market

Downtown Westerly and the Pawcatuck commercial district face each other across the river. Four tenths of a mile, and most of that is the bridge.

• Pawcatuck, Connecticut 0.4 miles, walkable
• Mystic 15 minutes, 8 miles
• New London 22 minutes, 17 miles
• Providence 45 minutes, 43 miles
• Westerly State Airport 9 minutes, 3 miles

US-1 is the commercial spine. Route 78 carries through traffic around downtown, which is why the district still functions as a walkable retail street instead of an arterial. Route 3 runs north toward Hopkinton and I-95, and Route 1A serves the shore villages.

Downtown Westerly and the Historic District

The Westerly Downtown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1984, with boundary expansions in 1995 and 2007. It runs from Broad and Union Streets east along High Street, and north along Canal Street to Railroad Avenue. The building stock is commercial and civic work from the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the first three of the twentieth, in Late Victorian, Art Deco, and Revival styles.

For a tenant that means masonry buildings with ground floor storefront and office above, at a density you can walk. For an owner it means rehabilitation sits inside a review framework, and it may open incentives an unlisted building cannot reach. Whether a specific address qualifies is a question for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, and it is worth asking before you budget a build-out rather than after.

Washington Trust Bancorp is headquartered at 23 Broad Street, inside that district. The bank was founded in 1800 and operates offices in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. A publicly traded holding company keeping its head office on the main street of a town of 23,000 is not a small thing for the office market around it.

The Amtrak Station

Westerly station sits on Railroad Avenue inside the district. Amtrak Northeast Regional trains stop there. Acela passes through without stopping.

The 1912 Spanish Colonial Revival building was restored in a two million dollar project in 1998. The ticket office closed in 2016 and reopened in 2018, with the waiting area doing double duty as an art gallery. Accessibility work adding two elevators was completed in July 2022. Platforms are still low level, and the state is pursuing federal funding to raise them by 2029.

For an office or professional services tenant, that is a one seat ride to Providence, Boston, and New York without a car. Very few downtowns this size offer it, and none of the Connecticut markets I cover between here and Old Saybrook do.

Why the State Line Matters Here

A business looking at downtown Westerly is almost never looking only at Westerly. The same customer base, the same labor pool, and often the same landlord operate on both banks of the river. The line has been there since 1662 and the commercial market has never paid much attention to it.

What the line does affect is who can show you the building. A broker licensed on one side can only work half the inventory in a market where the two districts are four tenths of a mile apart. I hold salesperson licenses in both states, so a requirement gets worked on whichever side of the river the right building sits.

Property Types I Handle in Westerly

• Downtown retail. Storefront space on High Street, Broad Street, and Canal Street.
• Office. Upper floor space in the district, and converted buildings along the US-1 corridor.
• Flex and light industrial. Including the Bradford and White Rock mill stock north of downtown.
• Investment sales. Mixed use and net leased assets.
• Land. Commercially zoned parcels on the US-1 and Route 3 corridors.

Landlord and Tenant Representation

For landlords I handle pricing, marketing, tour management, and negotiation through lease execution. For tenants I handle requirement definition, site selection, and negotiation, and I am paid by the landlord in the ordinary course, which means representation costs a tenant nothing in most transactions.

I do not take both sides of a transaction without disclosing it and getting written consent from everyone involved.

Common Questions

Are you licensed to represent me in Rhode Island?

Yes. I hold a Rhode Island salesperson license in addition to my Connecticut license, and I work under Switz Real Estate Associates Inc. In a market where the two downtowns are four tenths of a mile apart, being able to transact on only one side of the river is a real limitation.

Is Westerly the same as Watch Hill and Misquamicut?

Those are villages inside the town of Westerly, along with Weekapaug, Avondale, Bradford, White Rock, and Dunn’s Corners. They are not separate municipalities. It matters commercially because the shore villages run on a seasonal economy and downtown does not. A retail concept that works on Misquamicut in July is a different business than a storefront on High Street in February, and the rent structure should reflect which one you are actually opening.

Can you also handle space in Pawcatuck and Connecticut?

Yes. Pawcatuck is directly across the bridge, and I cover New London County from Old Saybrook east. If your requirement is really a two state search, that is how I would run it.

Do I need my own representation as a tenant?

The listing broker works for the landlord. That is their job and they do it well. If you are signing a five or ten year obligation, having someone whose duty runs to you is worth the phone call, particularly on the terms that are not the rent number.

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