Campaign seeks to lure out-of-state firms to city

One way to convince a small business to move to Providence is to “bribe your boss,” a somewhat light-hearted – yet pointed – take on economic development that invites employees, by way of a new website, to send the boss’ contact information so movers, shakers and believers in the city can take the leader to lunch and “make driving back to the ‘burbs tough.”
“Bring Your Company to Life” is a boldly messaged marketing campaign that’s been in soft launch online for several months and was officially announced May 21 by The Providence Foundation and the Downtown Improvement District, collaborators on the initiative.
The two-year marketing campaign is fueled by $75,000, of which $50,000 is from the two initiating organizations, along with $25,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation, said Joelle Kanter, program manager for The Providence Foundation.
The goal is to entice employees in suburban office parks, mainly in Rhode Island’s neighboring states, to build a grassroots movement to nudge company owners to leave the black-and-white-world pictured in the website video and set up shop in the vibrant environs of Providence’s foodie culture, rehabbed buildings loaded with character, affordable office space and walkability from workspace to residential neighborhoods.
“Love your job but hate where you work?” is the question dominating the website at bringyourcompantolife.com, as a car pulls into a suburban parking lot near a rectangular, architecturally character-less office building.
The message to kick-start the move from the suburbs to the vibrancy of downtown Providence was polished up by Nail, a communications firm located on Eddy Street
“We’re trying to target entrepreneurial, creative businesses,” said Kanter. “In the past, the style we used was a more formal, businesslike tone. This is [fresher]. I think Nail did a great job developing this with us because they live it. They’re in Providence and we want to attract companies that take an innovative approach and this speaks their language.”
Matt Fair, a commercial real estate broker with Hayes & Sherry Real Estate Services in the city, called the campaign “a powerful message meant to appeal to younger workers in the suburbs who are ready for connection with a larger community of people and with the vibrancy of Providence’s restaurants, bars, food trucks, arts and just places to congregate.” Fair is among the brokers working with The Providence Foundation to support the campaign. The primary goal is to bring in companies from other states, said Fair.
A “stronger Providence is to everyone’s benefit, but the project is really geared toward companies say, from Mansfield, all along that route in Massachusetts,” he said. “It’s targeted toward border towns near Rhode Island.”
Indeed, the marketing campaign is not shy about pointing that out. Its Facebook page urges companies to, “Bring your office out of the ham belt” – referring to Framingham, Dedham and Waltham – and has “Framing”…with a picture of a ham, “Ded”… with the same drawing of the ham and “Walt”… with the ham.
“This campaign aims for businesses interested in about 2,000 to 6,000 square feet of Class B office space,” said Fair. “In Providence, that’s generally everything outside of the major towers. We work with companies who want anything from 100 square feet for an office to 300,000 square feet and we often spend time working with larger tenants, but I think this campaign targets those in-between companies and fills a void.”
Fair estimates Providence has about 600,000 square feet of that Class B office space available in a variety of configurations.
Along with humor and enticement to enjoy the activities of urban life and work, The Providence Foundation has advocated for the city to freeze the commercial tax rate and develop a rapid permitting response in order to create a more-attractive downtown business environment, said Kanter. Those developments are part of the city’s economic-development agenda, she said.
The project team is banking on the vitality of the city itself to be the magnet.
“This is the right time to get the message across, as several homegrown companies are experiencing success,” The Providence Foundation Executive Director Daniel Baudouin said in an email.
“Downtown Providence is a unique asset for the state, offering an attractive office environment with transportation options, close proximity to colleges and other amenities,” he said. “National trends show that the creative, entrepreneurial companies we’re targeting want to locate in this kind of urban environment.” •