Anytime someone makes an $8 million investment in Rhode Island, and doesn’t require a taxpayer incentive to do so, it’s a win for the Ocean State. And thanks to the Rhode Island Blood Center, we can all take a minute to celebrate just such a moment.
The Blood Center just opened a 20,000-square-foot laboratory that cements its status as the region’s premier blood donation and storage facility. The lab will allow the center to perform all the tests currently required by the federal government, as well as allow for the use of new ones as they are developed.
The new facility, along with the rest of the Blood Center, is a key component of the region’s “meds and eds” sector, the one sure to continue to grow in coming years. But we should not take that growth for granted.
For instance, it is important that the city and state not allow the proposed adaptive reuse of the South Street Power Station and its ancillary projects that support the Warren Alpert Medical School and the Rhode Island College and University of Rhode Island nursing schools to be bogged down by the molasses-like inertia that seems to slow down every development project here.
If Rhode Island wants a dynamic economy, it must remain committed to moving forward, not back. •