After more than 20 years in Old Town’s Parker-Gray Historic District, a nonprofit wants to demolish its headquarters and replace it with five three-story townhomes.
The Society of Defense Financial Management — formerly the American Society of Military Comptrollers — has owned and used the office building at 415 N. Alfred Street since 2004. Now real estate developer PT Blooms is asking the city for permission to tear down the entire structure and build five new townhomes with roof decks and rear-loaded two-vehicle garages.
The request will go before the Board of Architectural Review during its 7 p.m. meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
The building was constructed in the 1930s and has seen a number of upgrades over the years. PT Blooms argues the office is not a historic structure and should be torn down. According to the proposal:
“The current building at 415 N. Alfred Street is a heavily modified extension of the ca. 1930s structure that has undergone several construction phases throughout the late 20th century, all of which have markedly eroded the building’s exterior and interior historic integrity,” the applicant wrote. “The study area no longer reflects the history of the Parker Gray Historic District as the site of a 19th century African American school, since that was demolished by the turn of the 20th century and replaced with a commercial structure in the 1930s.”
SDFM, which rebranded from ASMC in 2024, bought the 1,300-square-foot property for $1.8 million in 2004. It was last assessed at $2.13 million in value in January 2025, according to city records.
This proposal comes as the city faces a struggling office market and is looking to streamline office-to-residential conversions.
PT Blooms is being represented by land use attorney Kenneth W. Wire.
Photo 1 via Google Maps.
