Marketing effort eager to woo businesses to Pawtucket

FLYING HIGH: Thomas A. Mann Jr., executive director of The Pawtucket Foundation, says that he’s not aware that any city in the state that has more cranes in the air than Pawtucket currently does. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
FLYING HIGH: Thomas A. Mann Jr., executive director of The Pawtucket Foundation, says that he’s not aware that any city in the state that has more cranes in the air than Pawtucket currently does. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

A lot is happening in Pawtucket, as a conversation with Thomas A. Mann Jr., executive director of The Pawtucket Foundation, readily reveals. The foundation, a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3), is working on a new marketing plan for the city, including branding to replace the failed “Down-tucket” experiment of a few years ago, while it keeps an eye on the Pawtucket bridge replacement and possible partnerships with Central Falls. Keep an eye on those cranes along the skyline, Mann said, because they are a sign of Pawtucket’s progress.

PBN: Can you tell us about the marketing plan that Johnson & Wales University students prepared for Pawtucket?
MANN: The plan is useful in validating a lot of the work that we are doing and the direction we’re going, but we’re clearly working out a way to market the city to a wide variety of different audiences.
Our main focus is to market the city for living, working and visiting. On the living side, there is a whole spectrum of housing opportunities, from affordable work force housing to high-end condo lofts on the river.
We’re really interested in business development, getting more businesses to move to Pawtucket, in the mills, in the downtown, in the industrial parks … whether you’re looking for a Main Street storefront or an office complex, industrial space or artist space. We have the whole spectrum of that available.
And for visiting, what’s important is that Pawtucket could soon become part of a national park. [Congress is currently considering creation of a national historic park in the Blackstone Valley that would include the Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket.] We’re preparing for that now.

PBN: Can you tell us what the Johnson & Wales students did?
MANN: We [at the foundation] came up with a marketing prospectus, an outline of what we wanted to market and ways we would go about doing that. But all the researchers tell us, before you consider a branding strategy, you have to do your research to determine who you are marketing to and really hone it down and refine the process. So [the students] did a lot of demographic research for us. They looked at six cities around the country that have similar profiles to Pawtucket, but they’re very different [Springfield and Lynn, both in Mass.; Vancouver, Wash.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; Chattanooga, Tenn]. … [The students] looked at what worked [in these cities], what didn’t work.

PBN: When will you announce details of the new marketing plan?
MANN: In January, at our annual meeting, we will unveil the marketing campaign.
The first part of the campaign will be a website, which will be a clearinghouse for anyone looking for information on what Pawtucket has to offer for living, for working and for visiting. … Embolden Design in Pawtucket is doing [the website] and they’ve done a lot of work with community foundations and nonprofits.
Imagine an architecture firm in Manhattan that wants to be in the Northeast and is looking for a location for a studio, and hears that Pawtucket has an arts district that is tax-free. Where does that person go to get an answer online right away about what’s available and what’s involved? … Our website would be the landing spot where they could find out about the transportation, infrastructure, housing opportunities, [etc.]

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PBN: Tell us about the status of the Pawtucket bridge? (The bridge, with an 18-ton weight limit that forces most trucks onto alternate routes, is being replaced at a cost of $81 million.)
MANN: To see this thing actually coming to fruition, and the arches and the trusses are in place now, I mean, it’s really exciting and it’s going to be just a spectacular-looking bridge. I can’t express how it is going to change the face of Pawtucket. In the past, the old bridge served its purpose, but it certainly wasn’t known for any architectural merit. Most people drove over it without even realizing they were on a bridge. This will be different because a lot of care went into the design about how this bridge would be experienced from the ground, so it is way more than just a span across a river. This bridge is a symbol of Pawtucket’s future and it really demarcates the river as the centerpiece of the city. It is going to open up new opportunities for development, for recreation. … [The design] actually gives you room to access the river underneath it in a way that you couldn’t before. They’re planning for the bike path to go under the bridge, walking trails, all those things are possible now.

PBN: Any idea when it will be all done and we can drive over it?
MANN: They [the R.I. Department of Transportation] plan for the whole thing to be done in 2013. … One of the most important symbols of progress in any city is a crane in the skyline, and I’m not aware that any city in Rhode Island right now has more cranes in the air than Pawtucket today. There are several cranes on the bridge, there’s a building going up downtown, … There are at least five, if not more.

PBN: Does the Central Falls bankruptcy affect your foundation?
MANN: We’ve met with the receiver’s team and some other folks over there and we’ve identified some opportunities on ways we can partner [with Central Falls]. … We know that [the two cities] have many marketable assets in common, such as the river and the transportation infrastructure. … So if we can work jointly on capitalizing on those assets, it’s win-win for everybody. … What’s good for Central Falls is good for Pawtucket and vice versa. &#8226INTERVIEW
Thomas A. Mann Jr.
POSITION Executive director of The Pawtucket Foundation
BACKGROUND: Before becoming foundation head three years ago, he served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force for eight years. He also worked for an urban-design firm and as a teaching assistant while in graduate school. He is a 2010 member of the 40 Under Forty class of Providence Business News.
EDUCATION:
Bachelor’s degree in architecture, Mississippi State University, 1999, and a master’s degree in urban planning from Rutgers University in New Jersey, 2008
FIRST JOB: Working at a car wash in Tupelo, Miss., when he was 14 years old
RESIDENCE:
Narragansett
AGE: 35

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